Samsung Tech Day: Samsung SmartSSD, Field Programmable Gate Array SSD

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced several additions to its semiconductor ecosystem that encompass next-generation technologies in foundry as well as NAND flash, SSD and DRAM.

JS Choi, president, Samsung Semiconductor,
at Samsung Tech Day
(Photo: Business Wire)

Together, these developments mark a step forward for the company’s semiconductor business.

Unveiled at its annual Samsung Tech Day include:

• 7nm EUV process node from Samsung’s foundry business, providing strides forward in power, performance and area.

• SmartSSD, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) SSD, that will offer accelerated data processing and the ability to bypass server CPU limits.

• QLC-SSD for enterprise and datacenters that offer 33% more storage per cell than TLC-SSD, consolidating of storage footprints and improving TCO.

• 256GB 3DS (3-dimensional stacking) RDIMM (registered dual in-line memory module), based on 10nm-class 16Gb DDR4 DRAM that will double current maximum capacity to deliver higher performance and lower power consumption.

“Samsung’s technology leadership and product breadth are unparalleled,” said JS Choi, president, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “Bringing 7nm EUV into production is an incredible achievement. Also, the announcements of SmartSSD and 256GB 3DS RDIMM represent performance and capacity breakthroughs that will continue to push compute boundaries. Together, these additions to Samsung’s comprehensive technology ecosystem will power the next generation of datacenters, HPC, enterprise, AI and emerging applications.“

Advanced foundry technology
Initial wafer production of the company’s 7nm LPP (Low Power Plus) EUV process node represents a milestone in semiconductor fabrication. The 7LPP EUV process technology provides advances, including a respective maximum of 40% area reduction, 50% dynamic power reduction and 20% performance increase over 10nm processes. This process represents a clear demonstration of the foundry business’ technology roadmap evolution, providing Samsung’s customers a direct path forward to 3nm.

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Powering serve-less computing
The company enables advanced providers of server-less computing through products including the SmartSSD, quad-level cell (QLC)-SSD, 256GB 3DS RDIMM as well as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) 2 Aquabolt. By accelerating data processing, bypassing server CPU limits and reducing power demands, these products will enable datacenter operators to continue to scale at faster speeds while containing costs.

SZ985 Z-SSD

The company’s flash memory products for future datacenters will also include Key Value SSD (KV-SSD) and Z-SSD. KV-SSD eliminates block storage inefficiency, reducing latency and allowing datacenter performance to scale evenly when CPU architectures max out. The company’s next-generation Z-SSD will be the fastest flash memory introduced, with dual port HA, ultra-low latency and a U.2 form factor, designed to meet the emerging needs of enterprise clients. Z-SSD will also feature a PCIe Gen 4 interface with a 12GB/s sequential read, which is twenty times faster than today’s SATA SSD drives.

Accelerating application learning
A range of the company’s solutions will enable the development of upcoming machine learning and AI technologies. The Tech Day AI display highlighted data transfer speeds of 16Gb GDDR6 (64GB/s), low latency of Z-SSD and industry performance of Aquabolt, which is the highest of any DRAM-based memory solution currently in the market. Together, these solutions help the firm’s enterprise and datacenter clients open new doors to application learning and create the next wave of AI advancements.

Streamlining data flow
The company’s new solutions will enable faster speeds and higher performance and also improved efficiency for its enterprise clients. Enterprise products on display at Tech Day included D1Y 8Gb DDR4 Server DRAM, which incorporates advanced DRAM process, resulting in lower power usage. The firm’s 256GB 3DS RDIMM also helps to improve enterprise performance and enables memory-intensive servers capable up to 16TB.

Additionally, the company’s dual-port x4 PCIe Gen 4 32TB SSD offers 10GB/s performance. The 1Tb QLC-SSD presents a storage option for enterprise clients with competitive efficiency when compared to HDD drives, while KV-SSD allows server performance to scale even as CPU architectures max out, also providing a competitive TCO, write amplification factor (WAF) improvement and scalability.

4TB QLC-SSD

Breaking performance barriers
With their specs, the company’s QLC-SSD, Z-SSD and 8GB Aquabolt help high-performance computing clients blast through performance barriers and reach new heights. The 8GB Aquabolt provides the fastest data transmission speed and highest performance of any DRAM-based memory solution on the market at 307GB/s per HBM cube. QLC-SSD and Z-SSD, both powerful on their own, are also offered in a tiered storage solution that results in a 53% increase in overall system performance.

Enabling future innovation
Emerging tech requires innovative and flexible components. The company’s SmartSSD will increase speed and efficiency, and lower operating costs by pushing intelligence to where data lives. Movement of data for processing has traditionally caused increased latency and energy consumption while reducing efficiency. The firm’s SmartSSDs will overcome these issues by incorporating an FPGA accelerator into the SSD unit. This allows for faster data processing through bypassing server CPU limits. As a result, it will have high processing performance, improved time-to-insight, more VMs, scalable performance, better de-duplication and compression, lower power usage and fewer CPUs per system.

Product ecosystem
The company’s product portfolio with solutions set new standards for data processing speed, capacity, bandwidth and energy conservation. By leveraging such solutions, data centers, enterprise companies, hyper-scalers and emerging tech platforms are able to configure product solutions based on their requirements and develop exciting new tech offerings such as 5G, AI, enterprise and hyperscale data centers, automotive, networking and beyond.

The firm will continue to push boundaries in tomorrow’s semiconductor technologies through innovations such as its sixth-generation V-NAND built on a single structure, or with ‘one-stack technology,’ and sub-10nm DRAM with EUV for super-high density and performance.

Experts across the industry, including Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, were invited at Tech Day to address the advancements and challenges in today’s semiconductor market, and offer insights for the futre of semiconductors. More than 400 customers, partners and industry influencers attended the event.