Samsung's 6th-gen 3D V-NAND SSDs have a groundbreaking design for faster 256Gb data-transfers

Samsung's first 6th-gen 3D V-NAND SSD is now in production. (Source: Samsung)

Samsung claims that its upcoming vertically-stacked NAND (or V-NAND) for SATA-based SSDs confers improved read- and write-speeds on the resulting drives. They are composed of 100 or more layers of stacked flash cells, whereas previous generations had 99 or less. This increased scale is the new 3D memory's main advantage over its predecessors.

by Deirdre O Donnell, 2019/08/07

Samsung has announced that its new generation of V-NAND SSDs is now bring manufactured. This will be its 6th generation of this form of 3D memory. It is composed of vertically-stacked flash cells, each of which can house 3 bits of data. As they are arranged into the current conventional maximum of 256 gigabits (Gb) on an individual chip, it makes for exceptionally high-density storage.

The first of these new drives will be released with a total of 250GB in capacity. Samsung also claims that the design of this new V-NAND memory makes for improved data-retention, while also delivering read speeds of as little as 450 microseconds, as well as write speeds that can approach 45 microseconds. This represents a 10% improvement over the preceding generation, while using 15% less power.

This 6th-gen 3D flash memory is arranged into at least 100 layers (136 to start off with in the initial 250GB model) of single-stack structures, whereas the 5th generation could not get beyond 99. This breakthrough may be the key to even denser flash memory in the future; for example, Samsung now asserts that the immediate successors to this new NAND could scale up to 512Gb per chip.