Samsung is about to release its latest add-on on the SSD market. The company is proud to announce the 850 PRO SSD lineup. This technology comes packed with the company's three-dimensional (3D) vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory tech.
It has already been revealed that Samsung was working on a type of NAND technology. This is different from the traditional flash memory. V-NAND uses a proprietary vertical cell structure in order to go beyond the density limit of the planar NAND structure. The system involves moving to a 3D vertical stacking cylindrical cell arrangement with up to 32 layers.
The "charge pump device" (CPD) has been taken away and is replaced by a Charge Trap Flash (CTF). The CPD works by storing the charge in a semiconductor. However, any flaw in the material could result in electron leak that degrades overall NAND resistance.
CTF, on the other hand, stores the charge in an isolating layer, so there would be no further leakage problems. Additionally, the system only uses less voltage to store the charge.
As of the moment, Samsung apparently is right about making such bold statements. According to some reviews, Samsung is pushing the limits of the SATA interface with the new 850 Pro SSD.
Samsung claims that the 850 PRO offers the highest level of performance among SSDs with SATA III (6GB/s) interface. The sequential read performance should reach up to 550 MB/s with writing performance of up to 520MB/s. Furthermore, the drive comes with a Dynamic Thermal Guard technology in order to balance temperature while it is in use.
The 850 PRO is designed mainly for high-end PCs and workstations. This will become available worldwide in 53 markets starting this month, and in various storage capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities. The smallest will cost around $130 / €95, whereas the spacious 1TB would sell for $730 / €533.
