Samsung's 3-bit 3D V-NAND enters mass production, cheaper SSDs on the horizon

[Shawn Knight]

Solid state drives have long since been the preferred drive choice for those that value speed over capacity yet even as prices have come down significantly over the past few years, SSDs still remain a good bit more expensive than their traditional spinning counterparts.

Samsung is hoping to change that with a new type of flash module that enters mass production today called 3-bit multi-level cell (MLC) three-dimensional (3D) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory, or 3-bit V-NAND for short.

Traditional flash memory arranges cells side-by-side horizontally but as noted in a press release on the matter, the 3-bit V-NAND utilizes 32 vertically stacked cell layers per NAND memory chip.

Vertically stacking cell arrays sharply raises the efficiency of memory production. Compared to Samsung’s 10 nanometer-class 3-bit planar NAND flash, the new 3-bit V-NAND has more than doubled wafer productivity. More efficiency in the manufacturing process results in cheaper costs to manufacture.

As Tom's Hardware points out, because Samsung is expanding data into a third dimension, they don’t need to use a small lithographic process since stacking allows for much higher data densities. Using a smaller lithographic process lowers durability.

That said, 3D V-NAND will have higher data densities and can use a larger, more durable lithographic process. The only shortcoming of 3-bits per cell is that it doesn’t offer the same level of durability as 2-bits per cell. Because of this, we’ll likely see the new chips show up in Evo-class drives initially instead of Pro-branded SSDs.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/58380-samsung-3-bit-3d-v-nand-enters-mass.html

 

[oldikes]

A little confused. will these drives be more or less durable? and does durability refer to the "wear out" factor of SSDs?

 

[Evernessince]

A little confused. will these drives be more or less durable? and does durability refer to the "wear out" factor of SSDs?

The cells themselves will be less durable but because they can use larger lithography, that disadvantage can be offset. In otherwords, you can at least expect the same durability at around half the cost.

 

[Darth Shiv]

The cells themselves will be less durable but because they can use larger lithography, that disadvantage can be offset. In otherwords, you can at least expect the same durability at around half the cost.

They aren't scaling back on lithography far enough for Pro level durability though... hard to compare apples until they actually publish costs and durability figures for the models.

 

[gamoniac]

A little confused. will these drives be more or less durable? and does durability refer to the "wear out" factor of SSDs?

The cells themselves will be less durable but because they can use larger lithography, that disadvantage can be offset. In otherwords, you can at least expect the same durability at around half the cost.

Also, because we can get a larger SSD for the same price, that will help with the endurance as well. While technically that doesn't make the 3-bit MLC lasts longer, larger SSD means we write less to the same block less often and can afford a larger over-provisioned area. For practical example, we could have a 512GB SSD that is 40% filled, compared to a 256GB that is 80% filled.

 

[Kibaruk]

And even then guys, the evo was tested in a long endurance test to almost a petabyte of writes, which is more than we could ever commit to a single drive, considering we upgrade them on a basis.

Doing a fast search on google they updated the results on september and the samsung 840 pro and corsair neutron gtx have survived 1.5PB writes and are moving strongly to the 2PB. The test started on August 20 of 2013 and its still live.

I'm not sure how you feel on linking another tech site here but it's worth taking a look at http://techreport.com/review/24841/introducing-the-ssd-endurance-experiment

 

[SuperVeloce]

"Because of this, we’ll likely see the new chips show up in Evo-class drives initially instead of Pro-branded SSDs."
What? 850pro is already on the market...

 

[Kibaruk]

"Because of this, we’ll likely see the new chips show up in Evo-class drives initially instead of Pro-branded SSDs."
What? 850pro is already on the market...

Right, but it's not using v-chips is it? it's talking about NEWER models aimed at CERTAIN grade of drives due to their specification that will EVENTUALLY reach consumers with lower prices.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"Cheap". I like the sound of that, it has a certain ring to it. "Free" sounds even better but in this case I'll settle for "Cheap".

 

[Guest]

I have to wonder if these aren't as durable as is being stated, if a day come that it loses all your data, will you really care that it cost less than a more expensive (and more durable) SSD?

 

[mailpup]

I have to wonder if these aren't as durable as is being stated, if a day come that it loses all your data, will you really care that it cost less than a more expensive (and more durable) SSD?

Wonder no longer. It will be inconvenient but not a tragedy because you should always have a backup strategy regardless of what kind of SSD or HDD you might be using. Any SSD or HDD can fail unexpectedly at any time. Nothing lasts forever and there is always the possibility of external forces at work like lightning, fire, flood, etc. We see many examples of people here who lose their data because they didn't think to back it up. Don't be one of them.

 

[Jad Chaar]

A little confused. will these drives be more or less durable? and does durability refer to the "wear out" factor of SSDs?

Yeah I think that is what durability refers to.