Samsung launches their 800GB Z-NAND based Z-SSD

In recent years the weaknesses of standard NAND memory are evident, be it its performance at low queue depths or the high latencies that most drives suffer from. While these issues will not harm the performance of everyday workloads, the data-driven server market of the low-latency needs of some modern workloads alternatives to traditional NAND are required to accelerate computing further.  

The answer to this for some is the use of a large bank of RAM to create a RAMDISK, a volatile piece of storage that can be read and rewritten quickly, though problems do arise when a system is powered down, as data cannot be retained in this storage medium after a system shutdown. The industry needed a solution to this problem that is non-volatile, creating the need for Intel Optane and Samsung Z-NAND. 

Samsung’s Z-NAND is designed to offer around ten times the cell read performance of 3-bit V-NAND, while also providing latencies that are around five times lower. These changes allow Z-NAND to offer faster read/write speeds than standard NAND-based SSDs while also delivering faster response times. 

The SZ985 will be Samsung’s first Z-NAND powered SSD, with Samsung christening this new device a Z-SSD, with their 800GB model offering 1.5GB of DDR4 cache, 1.7X faster random read performance than their existing PM963 at 750K IOPS, five times lower write latency at 16 microseconds and random write speeds of 170K IOPS. 

One of Samsung’s key selling points of Z-NAND is its high durability rating, with their 800GB model coming with a five-year warranty that guarantees up to 30 full drive writes per day, which is a total of 42 petabytes of writes. 

The SZ985 SSD will come with 240GB and 800GB options with a PCIe add-in card form factor with a 4x PCIe 3.0 interface.