Micron Ships Denser & Faster 276 Layer TLC NAND, Arriving First In Micron 2650 Client SSDs
Micron on Tuesday announced that the company has begun shipping its 9th Generation (G9) 276 layer TLC NAND. The next generation of NAND from the prolific memory maker, Micron's latest NAND is designed to further push the envelope on TLC NAND performance, offering significant density and performance improvements over its existing NAND technology.
Micron's G9 TLC NAND memory features 276 active layers, which is up from 232-layers in case of Micron's previous generation TLC NAND. At this point the company is being light on technical details in their official material. However in a brief interview with Blocks & Files, the company confirmed that their 276L NAND still uses a six plane architecture, which was first introduced with the 232L generation. At this point we're assuming Micron is also string-stacking two decks of NAND together, as they have been for the past couple of generations, which means we're looking at 138 layer decks.
| Micron TLC NAND Flash Memory | |||
| 276L | 232L (B58R) |
176L (B47R) |
|
| Layers | 276 | 232 | 176 |
| Decks | 2 (x138)? | 2 (x116) | 2 (x88) |
| Die Capacity | 1 Tbit | 1 Tbit | 512 Gbit |
| Die Size (mm2) | ~48.9mm2 | ~70.1mm2 | ~49.8mm2 |
| Density (Gbit/mm2) | ~21 | 14.6 | 10.3 |
| I/O Speed | 3.6 GT/s (ONFi 5.1) |
2.4 GT/s (ONFi 5.0) |
1.6 GT/s (ONFI 4.2) |
| Planes | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| CuA / PuC | Yes | Yes | Yes |
On the density front, Micron told Blocks & Files that they have improved their NAND density by 44% over their 232L generation. Which, given what we know about that generation, would put the density at around 21 Gbit/mm2. Or for a 1Tbit die of TLC NAND, that works out to a die size of roughly 48.9mm2, comparable to the die size of a 512Gbit TLC die from Micron's older 176L NAND.
Besides improving density, the other big push with Micron's newest generation of NAND was further improving its throughput. While the company's 232L NAND was built against the ONFi 5.0 specification, which topped out at transfer rates of 2400 MT/sec, their new 276L NAND can hit 3600 MT/sec, which is consistent with the ONFi 5.1 spec.
Meanwhile, the eagle-eyed will likely also pick up on Micron's ninth-generation/G9 branding, which is new to the company. Micron's has not previously used this kind of generational branding for their NAND, which up until now has simply been identified by its layer count (and before the 3D era, its feature size). Internally, this is believed to be Micron's 7th generation 3D NAND architecture. However, taking a page from the logic fab industry, Micron seems to be branding it as ninth-generation in order to keep generational parity with its competitors, who are preparing their own 8th/9th generation NAND (and thus cliam that they are the first NAND maker to ship 9th gen NAND).
And while this NAND will eventually end up in ... SSDs
Posted by The Techinical Support
PCIe 7.0 Draft 0.5 Spec Available: 512 GB/s over PCIe x16 On Track For 2025 
PCI-SIG this week released version 0.5 of the PCI-Express 7.0 specification to its members. This is the second draft of the spec and the final call for PCI-SIG members to submit their new features to the standard. The latest update on the development of the specification comes a couple months shy of a year after the PCI-SIG published the initial Draft 0.3 specificaiton, with the PCI-SIG using the latest update to reiterate that development of the new standard remains on-track for a final release in 2025.
PCIe 7.0 is is the next generation interconnect technology for computers that is set to increase data transfer speeds to 128 GT/s per pin, doubling the 64 GT/s of PCIe 6.0 and quadrupling the 32 GT/s of PCIe 5.0. This would allow a 16-lane (x16) connection to support 256 GB/sec of bandwidth in each direction simultaneously, excluding encoding overhead. Such speeds will be handy for future datacenters as well as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications that will need even faster data transfer rates, including network data transfer rates.
To achieve its impressive data transfer rates, PCIe 7.0 doubles the bus frequency at the physical layer compared to PCIe 5.0 and 6.0. Otherwise, the standard retains pulse amplitude modulation with four level signaling (PAM4), 1b/1b FLIT mode encoding, and the forward error correction (FEC) technologies that are already used for PCIe 6.0. Otherwise, PCI-SIG says that the PCIe 7.0 speicification also focuses on enhanced channel parameters and reach as well as improved power efficiency.
Overall, the engineers behind the standard have their work cut out for them, given that PCIe 7.0 requires doubling the bus frequency at the physical layer, a major development that PCIe 6.0 sidestepped with PAM4 signaling. Nothing comes for free in regards to improving data signaling, and with PCIe 7.0, the PCI-SIG is arguably back to hard-mode development by needing to improve the physical layer once more – this time to enable it to run at around 30GHz. Though how much of this heavy lifting will be accomplished through smart signaling (and retimers) and how much will be accomplished through sheer materials improvements, such as thicker printed circuit boards (PCBs) and low-loss materials, remains to be seen.
The next major step for PCIe 7.0 is finalization of the version 0.7 of specification, which is considered the Complete Draft, where all aspects must be fully defined, and electrical specifications must be validated through test chips. After this iteration of the specification is released, no new features can be added. PCIe 6.0 eventually went through 4 major drafts – 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 – before finally being finalized, so PCIe 7.0 is likely on the same track.
Once finalized in 2025, it should take a few years for the first PCIe 7.0 hardware to hit the shelves. Although development work on controller IP and initial hardware is already underway, that process extends well beyond the release of the final PCIe specification.
CPUs
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs 
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
Samsung's 128 TB-Class BM1743 Enterprise SSD Displayed at FMS 2024 
Samsung had quietly launched its BM1743 enterprise QLC SSD last month with a hefty 61.44 TB SKU. At FMS 2024, the company had the even larger 122.88 TB version of that SSD on display, alongside a few recorded benchmarking sessions. Compared to the previous generation, the BM1743 comes with a 4.1x improvement in I/O performance, improvement in data retention, and a 45% improvement in power efficiency for sequential writes.
The 128 TB-class QLC SSD boasts of sequential read speeds of 7.5 GBps and write speeds of 3 GBps. Random reads come in at 1.6 M IOPS, while 16 KB random writes clock in at 45K IOPS. Based on the quoted random write access granularity, it appears that Samsung is using a 16 KB indirection unit (IU) to optimize flash management. This is similar to the strategy adopted by Solidigm with IUs larger than 4K in their high-capacity SSDs.
A recorded benchmark session on the company's PM9D3a 8-channel Gen 5 SSD was also on display.
The SSD family is being promoted as a mainstream option for datacenters, and boasts of sequential reads up to 12 GBps and writes up to 6.8 GBps. Random reads clock in at 2 M IOPS, and random writes at 400 K IOPS.
Available in multiple form-factors up to 32 TB (M.2 tops out at 2 TB), the drive's firmware includes optional support for flexible data placement (FDP) to help address the write amplification aspect.
The PM1753 is the current enterprise SSD flagship in Samsung's lineup. With support for 16 NAND channels and capacities up to 32 TB, this U.2 / E3.S SSD has advertised sequential read and write speeds of 14.8 GBps and 11 GBps respectively. Random reads and writes for 4 KB accesses are listed at 3.4 M and 600 K IOPS.
Samsung claims a 1.7x performance improvement and a 1.7x power efficiency improvement over the previous generation (PM1743), making this TLC SSD suitable for AI servers.
The 9th Gen. V-NAND wafer was also available for viewing, though photography was prohibited. Mass production of this flash memory began in April 2024.
Storage
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
PCIe 7.0 Draft 0.5 Spec Available: 512 GB/s over PCIe x16 On Track For 2025
PCI-SIG this week released version 0.5 of the PCI-Express 7.0 specification to its members. This is the second draft of the spec and the final call for PCI-SIG members to submit their new features to the standard. The latest update on the development of the specification comes a couple months shy of a year after the PCI-SIG published the initial Draft 0.3 specificaiton, with the PCI-SIG using the latest update to reiterate that development of the new standard remains on-track for a final release in 2025.
PCIe 7.0 is is the next generation interconnect technology for computers that is set to increase data transfer speeds to 128 GT/s per pin, doubling the 64 GT/s of PCIe 6.0 and quadrupling the 32 GT/s of PCIe 5.0. This would allow a 16-lane (x16) connection to support 256 GB/sec of bandwidth in each direction simultaneously, excluding encoding overhead. Such speeds will be handy for future datacenters as well as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications that will need even faster data transfer rates, including network data transfer rates.
To achieve its impressive data transfer rates, PCIe 7.0 doubles the bus frequency at the physical layer compared to PCIe 5.0 and 6.0. Otherwise, the standard retains pulse amplitude modulation with four level signaling (PAM4), 1b/1b FLIT mode encoding, and the forward error correction (FEC) technologies that are already used for PCIe 6.0. Otherwise, PCI-SIG says that the PCIe 7.0 speicification also focuses on enhanced channel parameters and reach as well as improved power efficiency.
Overall, the engineers behind the standard have their work cut out for them, given that PCIe 7.0 requires doubling the bus frequency at the physical layer, a major development that PCIe 6.0 sidestepped with PAM4 signaling. Nothing comes for free in regards to improving data signaling, and with PCIe 7.0, the PCI-SIG is arguably back to hard-mode development by needing to improve the physical layer once more – this time to enable it to run at around 30GHz. Though how much of this heavy lifting will be accomplished through smart signaling (and retimers) and how much will be accomplished through sheer materials improvements, such as thicker printed circuit boards (PCBs) and low-loss materials, remains to be seen.
The next major step for PCIe 7.0 is finalization of the version 0.7 of specification, which is considered the Complete Draft, where all aspects must be fully defined, and electrical specifications must be validated through test chips. After this iteration of the specification is released, no new features can be added. PCIe 6.0 eventually went through 4 major drafts – 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 – before finally being finalized, so PCIe 7.0 is likely on the same track.
Once finalized in 2025, it should take a few years for the first PCIe 7.0 hardware to hit the shelves. Although development work on controller IP and initial hardware is already underway, that process extends well beyond the release of the final PCIe specification.
CPUs
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
Samsung's 128 TB-Class BM1743 Enterprise SSD Displayed at FMS 2024
Samsung had quietly launched its BM1743 enterprise QLC SSD last month with a hefty 61.44 TB SKU. At FMS 2024, the company had the even larger 122.88 TB version of that SSD on display, alongside a few recorded benchmarking sessions. Compared to the previous generation, the BM1743 comes with a 4.1x improvement in I/O performance, improvement in data retention, and a 45% improvement in power efficiency for sequential writes.
The 128 TB-class QLC SSD boasts of sequential read speeds of 7.5 GBps and write speeds of 3 GBps. Random reads come in at 1.6 M IOPS, while 16 KB random writes clock in at 45K IOPS. Based on the quoted random write access granularity, it appears that Samsung is using a 16 KB indirection unit (IU) to optimize flash management. This is similar to the strategy adopted by Solidigm with IUs larger than 4K in their high-capacity SSDs.
A recorded benchmark session on the company's PM9D3a 8-channel Gen 5 SSD was also on display.
The SSD family is being promoted as a mainstream option for datacenters, and boasts of sequential reads up to 12 GBps and writes up to 6.8 GBps. Random reads clock in at 2 M IOPS, and random writes at 400 K IOPS.
Available in multiple form-factors up to 32 TB (M.2 tops out at 2 TB), the drive's firmware includes optional support for flexible data placement (FDP) to help address the write amplification aspect.
The PM1753 is the current enterprise SSD flagship in Samsung's lineup. With support for 16 NAND channels and capacities up to 32 TB, this U.2 / E3.S SSD has advertised sequential read and write speeds of 14.8 GBps and 11 GBps respectively. Random reads and writes for 4 KB accesses are listed at 3.4 M and 600 K IOPS.
Samsung claims a 1.7x performance improvement and a 1.7x power efficiency improvement over the previous generation (PM1743), making this TLC SSD suitable for AI servers.
The 9th Gen. V-NAND wafer was also available for viewing, though photography was prohibited. Mass production of this flash memory began in April 2024.
Storage
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
Kioxia Demonstrates Optical Interface SSDs for Data Centers 
A few years back, the Japanese government's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO ) allocated funding for the development of green datacenter technologies. With the aim to obtain up to 40% savings in overall power consumption, several Japanese companies have been developing an optical interface for their enterprise SSDs. And at this year's FMS, Kioxia had their optical interface on display.
For this demonstration, Kioxia took its existing CM7 enterprise SSD and created an optical interface for it. A PCIe card with on-board optics developed by Kyocera is installed in the server slot. An optical interface allows data transfer over long distances (it was 40m in the demo, but Kioxia promises lengths of up to 100m for the cable in the future). This allows the storage to be kept in a separate room with minimal cooling requirements compared to the rack with the CPUs and GPUs. Disaggregation of different server components will become an option as very high throughput interfaces such as PCIe 7.0 (with 128 GT/s rates) become available.
The demonstration of the optical SSD showed a slight loss in IOPS performance, but a significant advantage in the latency metric over the shipping enterprise SSD behind a copper network link. Obviously, there are advantages in wiring requirements and signal integrity maintenance with optical links.
Being a proof-of-concept demonstration, we do see the requirement for an industry-standard approach if this were to gain adoption among different datacenter vendors. The PCI-SIG optical workgroup will need to get its act together soon to create a standards-based approach to this problem.
Storage
![](https://twitter.com/share?url=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2024/07/micron-ships-denser-faster-276-layer.html&text=Micron Ships Denser & Faster 276 Layer TLC NAND, Arriving First In Micron 2650 Client SSDs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21492/micron-ships-denser-9th-generation-nand-276layers-and-2650-client-ssds"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21492/product-g9-tlc-nand-product-on-board-3-2-all-others_575px.jpeg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Micron on Tuesday announced that the company has begun shipping its 9th Generation (G9) 276 layer TLC NAND. The next generation of NAND from the prolific memory maker, Micron's latest NAND is designed to further push the envelope on TLC NAND performance, offering significant density and performance improvements over its existing NAND technology.</p>
<p>Micron's G9 TLC NAND memory features 276 active layers, which is up from <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/17509/microns-232-layer-nand-now-shipping">232-layers in case of Micron's previous generation TLC NAND</a>. At this point the company is being light on technical details in their official material. However in a brief interview with <a href="https://blocksandfiles.com/2024/07/30/micron-276-layer-3d-nand-2650-client-ssd/">Blocks & Files</a>, the company confirmed that their 276L NAND still uses a six plane architecture, which was first introduced with the 232L generation. At this point we're assuming Micron is also string-stacking two decks of NAND together, as they have been for the past couple of generations, which means we're looking at 138 layer decks.</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="70%">
<tbody>
<tr class="tgrey">
<td align="center" colspan="4">Micron TLC NAND Flash Memory</td>
</tr>
<tr class="tlblue">
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1"> </td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">276L</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">232L<br />
(B58R)</td>
<td align="center" colspan="1" rowspan="1">176L<br />
(B47R)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Layers</td>
<td align="center">276</td>
<td align="center">232</td>
<td align="center">176</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Decks</td>
<td align="center">2 (x138)?</td>
<td align="center">2 (x116)</td>
<td align="center">2 (x88)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Die Capacity</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1 Tbit</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1 Tbit</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">512 Gbit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Die Size (mm<sup>2</sup>)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~48.9mm2</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~70.1mm2</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~49.8mm2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Density (Gbit/mm<sup>2</sup>)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~21</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">14.6</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">10.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">I/O Speed</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">3.6 GT/s<br />
(ONFi 5.1)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">2.4 GT/s<br />
(ONFi 5.0)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1.6 GT/s<br />
(ONFI 4.2)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Planes</td>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">CuA / PuC</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>On the density front, Micron told Blocks & Files that they have improved their NAND density by 44% over their 232L generation. Which, given what we know about that generation, would put the density at around 21 Gbit/mm<sup>2</sup>. Or for a 1Tbit die of TLC NAND, that works out to a die size of roughly 48.9mm<sup>2</sup>, comparable to the die size of a 512Gbit TLC die from Micron's older 176L NAND.</p>
<p>Besides improving density, the other big push with Micron's newest generation of NAND was further improving its throughput. While the company's 232L NAND was built against the ONFi 5.0 specification, which topped out at transfer rates of 2400 MT/sec, their new 276L NAND can hit 3600 MT/sec, which is consistent with the ONFi 5.1 spec.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the eagle-eyed will likely also pick up on Micron's ninth-generation/G9 branding, which is new to the company. Micron's has not previously used this kind of generational branding for their NAND, which up until now has simply been identified by its layer count (and before the 3D era, its feature size). Internally, this is believed to be Micron's 7th generation 3D NAND architecture. However, taking a page from the logic fab industry, Micron seems to be branding it as ninth-generation in order to keep generational parity with its competitors, who are preparing their own 8th/9th generation NAND (and thus cliam that they are the first NAND maker to ship 9th gen NAND).</p>
<p>And while this NAND will eventually end up in ... SSDs){kind=link}
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2024/07/micron-ships-denser-faster-276-layer.html&media=https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uJQ7P_G5-Qr7uU4T_SuljeVpgInCiY9_qjYE5G64rXbcv7aaybtuvMld1RpVXw8wu9rV0ZxqklmuwBtmG8iL1z8s8DtM81ed8-aoQgzloIWJ_iQcCAERj2qw_ZjjZRMfqi2vPC2f_99Dxzs6MAUGbjSf99fLT3dIgN1Y1RWw7TdIDvnVZ8kyGo&description=Micron Ships Denser & Faster 276 Layer TLC NAND, Arriving First In Micron 2650 Client SSDs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21492/micron-ships-denser-9th-generation-nand-276layers-and-2650-client-ssds"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21492/product-g9-tlc-nand-product-on-board-3-2-all-others_575px.jpeg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Micron on Tuesday announced that the company has begun shipping its 9th Generation (G9) 276 layer TLC NAND. The next generation of NAND from the prolific memory maker, Micron's latest NAND is designed to further push the envelope on TLC NAND performance, offering significant density and performance improvements over its existing NAND technology.</p>
<p>Micron's G9 TLC NAND memory features 276 active layers, which is up from <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/17509/microns-232-layer-nand-now-shipping">232-layers in case of Micron's previous generation TLC NAND</a>. At this point the company is being light on technical details in their official material. However in a brief interview with <a href="https://blocksandfiles.com/2024/07/30/micron-276-layer-3d-nand-2650-client-ssd/">Blocks & Files</a>, the company confirmed that their 276L NAND still uses a six plane architecture, which was first introduced with the 232L generation. At this point we're assuming Micron is also string-stacking two decks of NAND together, as they have been for the past couple of generations, which means we're looking at 138 layer decks.</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="70%">
<tbody>
<tr class="tgrey">
<td align="center" colspan="4">Micron TLC NAND Flash Memory</td>
</tr>
<tr class="tlblue">
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1"> </td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">276L</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">232L<br />
(B58R)</td>
<td align="center" colspan="1" rowspan="1">176L<br />
(B47R)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Layers</td>
<td align="center">276</td>
<td align="center">232</td>
<td align="center">176</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Decks</td>
<td align="center">2 (x138)?</td>
<td align="center">2 (x116)</td>
<td align="center">2 (x88)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Die Capacity</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1 Tbit</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1 Tbit</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">512 Gbit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Die Size (mm<sup>2</sup>)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~48.9mm2</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~70.1mm2</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~49.8mm2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Density (Gbit/mm<sup>2</sup>)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~21</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">14.6</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">10.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">I/O Speed</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">3.6 GT/s<br />
(ONFi 5.1)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">2.4 GT/s<br />
(ONFi 5.0)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1.6 GT/s<br />
(ONFI 4.2)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Planes</td>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">CuA / PuC</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>On the density front, Micron told Blocks & Files that they have improved their NAND density by 44% over their 232L generation. Which, given what we know about that generation, would put the density at around 21 Gbit/mm<sup>2</sup>. Or for a 1Tbit die of TLC NAND, that works out to a die size of roughly 48.9mm<sup>2</sup>, comparable to the die size of a 512Gbit TLC die from Micron's older 176L NAND.</p>
<p>Besides improving density, the other big push with Micron's newest generation of NAND was further improving its throughput. While the company's 232L NAND was built against the ONFi 5.0 specification, which topped out at transfer rates of 2400 MT/sec, their new 276L NAND can hit 3600 MT/sec, which is consistent with the ONFi 5.1 spec.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the eagle-eyed will likely also pick up on Micron's ninth-generation/G9 branding, which is new to the company. Micron's has not previously used this kind of generational branding for their NAND, which up until now has simply been identified by its layer count (and before the 3D era, its feature size). Internally, this is believed to be Micron's 7th generation 3D NAND architecture. However, taking a page from the logic fab industry, Micron seems to be branding it as ninth-generation in order to keep generational parity with its competitors, who are preparing their own 8th/9th generation NAND (and thus cliam that they are the first NAND maker to ship 9th gen NAND).</p>
<p>And while this NAND will eventually end up in ... SSDs){kind=link}
![](https://web.whatsapp.com/send?text=Micron Ships Denser & Faster 276 Layer TLC NAND, Arriving First In Micron 2650 Client SSDs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21492/micron-ships-denser-9th-generation-nand-276layers-and-2650-client-ssds"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21492/product-g9-tlc-nand-product-on-board-3-2-all-others_575px.jpeg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Micron on Tuesday announced that the company has begun shipping its 9th Generation (G9) 276 layer TLC NAND. The next generation of NAND from the prolific memory maker, Micron's latest NAND is designed to further push the envelope on TLC NAND performance, offering significant density and performance improvements over its existing NAND technology.</p>
<p>Micron's G9 TLC NAND memory features 276 active layers, which is up from <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/17509/microns-232-layer-nand-now-shipping">232-layers in case of Micron's previous generation TLC NAND</a>. At this point the company is being light on technical details in their official material. However in a brief interview with <a href="https://blocksandfiles.com/2024/07/30/micron-276-layer-3d-nand-2650-client-ssd/">Blocks & Files</a>, the company confirmed that their 276L NAND still uses a six plane architecture, which was first introduced with the 232L generation. At this point we're assuming Micron is also string-stacking two decks of NAND together, as they have been for the past couple of generations, which means we're looking at 138 layer decks.</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="70%">
<tbody>
<tr class="tgrey">
<td align="center" colspan="4">Micron TLC NAND Flash Memory</td>
</tr>
<tr class="tlblue">
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1"> </td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">276L</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">232L<br />
(B58R)</td>
<td align="center" colspan="1" rowspan="1">176L<br />
(B47R)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Layers</td>
<td align="center">276</td>
<td align="center">232</td>
<td align="center">176</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Decks</td>
<td align="center">2 (x138)?</td>
<td align="center">2 (x116)</td>
<td align="center">2 (x88)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Die Capacity</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1 Tbit</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1 Tbit</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">512 Gbit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Die Size (mm<sup>2</sup>)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~48.9mm2</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~70.1mm2</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~49.8mm2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Density (Gbit/mm<sup>2</sup>)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~21</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">14.6</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">10.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">I/O Speed</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">3.6 GT/s<br />
(ONFi 5.1)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">2.4 GT/s<br />
(ONFi 5.0)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1.6 GT/s<br />
(ONFI 4.2)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Planes</td>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">CuA / PuC</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>On the density front, Micron told Blocks & Files that they have improved their NAND density by 44% over their 232L generation. Which, given what we know about that generation, would put the density at around 21 Gbit/mm<sup>2</sup>. Or for a 1Tbit die of TLC NAND, that works out to a die size of roughly 48.9mm<sup>2</sup>, comparable to the die size of a 512Gbit TLC die from Micron's older 176L NAND.</p>
<p>Besides improving density, the other big push with Micron's newest generation of NAND was further improving its throughput. While the company's 232L NAND was built against the ONFi 5.0 specification, which topped out at transfer rates of 2400 MT/sec, their new 276L NAND can hit 3600 MT/sec, which is consistent with the ONFi 5.1 spec.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the eagle-eyed will likely also pick up on Micron's ninth-generation/G9 branding, which is new to the company. Micron's has not previously used this kind of generational branding for their NAND, which up until now has simply been identified by its layer count (and before the 3D era, its feature size). Internally, this is believed to be Micron's 7th generation 3D NAND architecture. However, taking a page from the logic fab industry, Micron seems to be branding it as ninth-generation in order to keep generational parity with its competitors, who are preparing their own 8th/9th generation NAND (and thus cliam that they are the first NAND maker to ship 9th gen NAND).</p>
<p>And while this NAND will eventually end up in ... SSDs | https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2024/07/micron-ships-denser-faster-276-layer.html){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Micron Ships Denser & Faster 276 Layer TLC NAND, Arriving First In Micron 2650 Client SSDs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21492/micron-ships-denser-9th-generation-nand-276layers-and-2650-client-ssds"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21492/product-g9-tlc-nand-product-on-board-3-2-all-others_575px.jpeg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Micron on Tuesday announced that the company has begun shipping its 9th Generation (G9) 276 layer TLC NAND. The next generation of NAND from the prolific memory maker, Micron's latest NAND is designed to further push the envelope on TLC NAND performance, offering significant density and performance improvements over its existing NAND technology.</p>
<p>Micron's G9 TLC NAND memory features 276 active layers, which is up from <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/17509/microns-232-layer-nand-now-shipping">232-layers in case of Micron's previous generation TLC NAND</a>. At this point the company is being light on technical details in their official material. However in a brief interview with <a href="https://blocksandfiles.com/2024/07/30/micron-276-layer-3d-nand-2650-client-ssd/">Blocks & Files</a>, the company confirmed that their 276L NAND still uses a six plane architecture, which was first introduced with the 232L generation. At this point we're assuming Micron is also string-stacking two decks of NAND together, as they have been for the past couple of generations, which means we're looking at 138 layer decks.</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="70%">
<tbody>
<tr class="tgrey">
<td align="center" colspan="4">Micron TLC NAND Flash Memory</td>
</tr>
<tr class="tlblue">
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1"> </td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">276L</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">232L<br />
(B58R)</td>
<td align="center" colspan="1" rowspan="1">176L<br />
(B47R)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Layers</td>
<td align="center">276</td>
<td align="center">232</td>
<td align="center">176</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Decks</td>
<td align="center">2 (x138)?</td>
<td align="center">2 (x116)</td>
<td align="center">2 (x88)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Die Capacity</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1 Tbit</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1 Tbit</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">512 Gbit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Die Size (mm<sup>2</sup>)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~48.9mm2</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~70.1mm2</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~49.8mm2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Density (Gbit/mm<sup>2</sup>)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">~21</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">14.6</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">10.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1" rowspan="1">I/O Speed</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">3.6 GT/s<br />
(ONFi 5.1)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">2.4 GT/s<br />
(ONFi 5.0)</td>
<td align="center" rowspan="1">1.6 GT/s<br />
(ONFI 4.2)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">Planes</td>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tlgrey" colspan="1">CuA / PuC</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
<td align="center">Yes</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>On the density front, Micron told Blocks & Files that they have improved their NAND density by 44% over their 232L generation. Which, given what we know about that generation, would put the density at around 21 Gbit/mm<sup>2</sup>. Or for a 1Tbit die of TLC NAND, that works out to a die size of roughly 48.9mm<sup>2</sup>, comparable to the die size of a 512Gbit TLC die from Micron's older 176L NAND.</p>
<p>Besides improving density, the other big push with Micron's newest generation of NAND was further improving its throughput. While the company's 232L NAND was built against the ONFi 5.0 specification, which topped out at transfer rates of 2400 MT/sec, their new 276L NAND can hit 3600 MT/sec, which is consistent with the ONFi 5.1 spec.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the eagle-eyed will likely also pick up on Micron's ninth-generation/G9 branding, which is new to the company. Micron's has not previously used this kind of generational branding for their NAND, which up until now has simply been identified by its layer count (and before the 3D era, its feature size). Internally, this is believed to be Micron's 7th generation 3D NAND architecture. However, taking a page from the logic fab industry, Micron seems to be branding it as ninth-generation in order to keep generational parity with its competitors, who are preparing their own 8th/9th generation NAND (and thus cliam that they are the first NAND maker to ship 9th gen NAND).</p>
<p>And while this NAND will eventually end up in ... SSDs&body=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2024/07/micron-ships-denser-faster-276-layer.html){kind=link}
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell It is with great sadness that I find myself penning the hardest news post I’ve ever needed to write here at AnandTech. After over 27 years of covering the wide – and wild – world of computing hardware, today is AnandTech’s final day of publication.
For better or worse, we’ve reached the end of a long journey – one that started with a review of an AMD processor, and has ended with the review of an AMD processor. It’s fittingly poetic, but it is also a testament to the fact that we’ve spent the last 27 years doing what we love, covering the chips that are the lifeblood of the computing industry.
A lot of things have changed in the last quarter-century – in 1997 NVIDIA had yet to even coin the term “GPU” – and we’ve been fortunate to watch the world of hardware continue to evolve over the time period. We’ve gone from boxy desktop computers and laptops that today we’d charitably classify as portable desktops, to pocket computers where even the cheapest budget device puts the fastest PC of 1997 to shame.
The years have also brought some monumental changes to the world of publishing. AnandTech was hardly the first hardware enthusiast website, nor will we be the last. But we were fortunate to thrive in the past couple of decades, when so many of our peers did not, thanks to a combination of hard work, strategic investments in people and products, even more hard work, and the support of our many friends, colleagues, and readers.
Still, few things last forever, and the market for written tech journalism is not what it once was – nor will it ever be again. So, the time has come for AnandTech to wrap up its work, and let the next generation of tech journalists take their place within the zeitgeist.
It has been my immense privilege to write for AnandTech for the past 19 years – and to manage it as its editor-in-chief for the past decade. And while I carry more than a bit of remorse in being AnandTech’s final boss, I can at least take pride in everything we’ve accomplished over the years, whether it’s lauding some legendary products, writing technology primers that still remain relevant today, or watching new stars rise in expected places. There is still more that I had wanted AnandTech to do, but after 21,500 articles, this was a good start.
And while the AnandTech staff is riding off into the sunset, I am happy to report that the site itself won’t be going anywhere for a while. Our publisher, Future PLC, will be keeping the AnandTech website and its many articles live indefinitely. So that all of the content we’ve created over the years remains accessible and citable. Even without new articles to add to the collection, I expect that many of the things we’ve written over the past couple of decades will remain relevant for years to come – and remain accessible just as long.
The AnandTech Forums will also continue to be operated by Future’s community team and our dedicated troop of moderators. With forum threads going back to 1999 (and some active members just as long), the forums have a history almost as long and as storied as AnandTech itself (wounded monitor children, anyone?). So even when AnandTech is no longer publishing articles, we’ll still have a place for everyone to talk about the latest in technology – and have those discussions last longer than 48 hours.
Finally, for everyone who still needs their technical writing fix, our formidable opposition of the last 27 years and fellow Future brand, Tom’s Hardware, is continuing to cover the world of technology. There are a couple of familiar AnandTech faces already over there providing their accumulated expertise, and the site will continue doing its best to provide a written take on technology news.
So Many Thank Yous
As I look back on everything AnandTech has accomplished over the past 27 years, there are more than a few people, groups, and companies that I would like to thank on behalf of both myself and AnandTech as a whole.
First and foremost, I cannot thank enough all the editors who have worked for AnandTech over the years. T... Site Updates
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PCIe 7.0 Draft 0.5 Spec Available: 512 GB/s over PCIe x16 On Track For 2025
PCI-SIG this week released version 0.5 of the PCI-Express 7.0 specification to its members. This is the second draft of the spec and the final call for PCI-SIG members to submit their new features to the standard. The latest update on the development of the specification comes a couple months shy of a year after the PCI-SIG published the initial Draft 0.3 specificaiton, with the PCI-SIG using the latest update to reiterate that development of the new standard remains on-track for a final release in 2025.
PCIe 7.0 is is the next generation interconnect technology for computers that is set to increase data transfer speeds to 128 GT/s per pin, doubling the 64 GT/s of PCIe 6.0 and quadrupling the 32 GT/s of PCIe 5.0. This would allow a 16-lane (x16) connection to support 256 GB/sec of bandwidth in each direction simultaneously, excluding encoding overhead. Such speeds will be handy for future datacenters as well as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications that will need even faster data transfer rates, including network data transfer rates.
To achieve its impressive data transfer rates, PCIe 7.0 doubles the bus frequency at the physical layer compared to PCIe 5.0 and 6.0. Otherwise, the standard retains pulse amplitude modulation with four level signaling (PAM4), 1b/1b FLIT mode encoding, and the forward error correction (FEC) technologies that are already used for PCIe 6.0. Otherwise, PCI-SIG says that the PCIe 7.0 speicification also focuses on enhanced channel parameters and reach as well as improved power efficiency.
Overall, the engineers behind the standard have their work cut out for them, given that PCIe 7.0 requires doubling the bus frequency at the physical layer, a major development that PCIe 6.0 sidestepped with PAM4 signaling. Nothing comes for free in regards to improving data signaling, and with PCIe 7.0, the PCI-SIG is arguably back to hard-mode development by needing to improve the physical layer once more – this time to enable it to run at around 30GHz. Though how much of this heavy lifting will be accomplished through smart signaling (and retimers) and how much will be accomplished through sheer materials improvements, such as thicker printed circuit boards (PCBs) and low-loss materials, remains to be seen.
The next major step for PCIe 7.0 is finalization of the version 0.7 of specification, which is considered the Complete Draft, where all aspects must be fully defined, and electrical specifications must be validated through test chips. After this iteration of the specification is released, no new features can be added. PCIe 6.0 eventually went through 4 major drafts – 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 – before finally being finalized, so PCIe 7.0 is likely on the same track.
Once finalized in 2025, it should take a few years for the first PCIe 7.0 hardware to hit the shelves. Although development work on controller IP and initial hardware is already underway, that process extends well beyond the release of the final PCIe specification.
CPUs
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
Samsung's 128 TB-Class BM1743 Enterprise SSD Displayed at FMS 2024
Samsung had quietly launched its BM1743 enterprise QLC SSD last month with a hefty 61.44 TB SKU. At FMS 2024, the company had the even larger 122.88 TB version of that SSD on display, alongside a few recorded benchmarking sessions. Compared to the previous generation, the BM1743 comes with a 4.1x improvement in I/O performance, improvement in data retention, and a 45% improvement in power efficiency for sequential writes.
The 128 TB-class QLC SSD boasts of sequential read speeds of 7.5 GBps and write speeds of 3 GBps. Random reads come in at 1.6 M IOPS, while 16 KB random writes clock in at 45K IOPS. Based on the quoted random write access granularity, it appears that Samsung is using a 16 KB indirection unit (IU) to optimize flash management. This is similar to the strategy adopted by Solidigm with IUs larger than 4K in their high-capacity SSDs.
A recorded benchmark session on the company's PM9D3a 8-channel Gen 5 SSD was also on display.
The SSD family is being promoted as a mainstream option for datacenters, and boasts of sequential reads up to 12 GBps and writes up to 6.8 GBps. Random reads clock in at 2 M IOPS, and random writes at 400 K IOPS.
Available in multiple form-factors up to 32 TB (M.2 tops out at 2 TB), the drive's firmware includes optional support for flexible data placement (FDP) to help address the write amplification aspect.
The PM1753 is the current enterprise SSD flagship in Samsung's lineup. With support for 16 NAND channels and capacities up to 32 TB, this U.2 / E3.S SSD has advertised sequential read and write speeds of 14.8 GBps and 11 GBps respectively. Random reads and writes for 4 KB accesses are listed at 3.4 M and 600 K IOPS.
Samsung claims a 1.7x performance improvement and a 1.7x power efficiency improvement over the previous generation (PM1743), making this TLC SSD suitable for AI servers.
The 9th Gen. V-NAND wafer was also available for viewing, though photography was prohibited. Mass production of this flash memory began in April 2024.
Storage
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