Samsung’s new 5 nm high-performance SSD faster, uses less power

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, said on Thursday it is ready to produce in large quantities PM9C1a, its latest high-performance solid-state drive (SSD) for personal computers.

The South Korean tech giant said the SSD is equipped with a new controller made with the company’s cutting-edge 5-nanometer technology and its seventh-generation V-NAND chip.

“Our new PM9C1a SSD will deliver a robust combination of superior performance, greater power efficiency and increased security – the qualities that matter most to PC users,” said Song Yong-ho, executive vice president of Memory Solution Product & Development at Samsung.

The company said the SSD is ideal for everyday use as well as for more demanding computing and gaming applications.

Chipmakers are competitively unveiling new SSDs to grab a greater share of the growing market amid the stay-at-home work environment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Samsung and its crosstown rival SK Hynix Inc., which is the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, have unveiled a series of new solid-state drives to expand their presence in corporate and consumer markets for high-capacity storage devices.

TIGHTER SECURITY MEASURES

Leveraging the PCIe 4.0 interface, Samsung’s latest SSD boasts 1.6 times faster read speed and 1.8 times faster write speed than its previous storage device, PM9B1.

The new SSD offers up to 70% more power efficiency per watt than its predecessor. Also, when a laptop computer goes into standby mode, it uses about 10% less power, Samsung said.

To address the rising need for tighter security measures, the PM9C1a supports the Device Identifier Composition Engine (DICE) security standard created by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), a global organization that develops open standards for computing security.

DICE generates cryptographic keys inside the SSD, providing device authentication to protect against supply chain attacks – cyberattacks that target companies through vulnerabilities in their supplier network.

Samsung’s PM9C1a SSDs will be available in 256-gigabyte (GB), 512 GB and 1-terabyte (TB) storage capacities.

Write to Sungsu Bae at baebae@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.