Micron Shipping Crucial 2500 NMVe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Up to 2TB SSD with 232-Layer QLC NAND

Micron Technology, Inc. announcied that its 232-layer QLC NAND is in mass production and shipping in select Crucial SSDs, in volume production to enterprise storage customers and sampling to OEM PC manufacturers in the Micron 2500 NMVe SSD.

Micron 232-layer QLC NAND delivers performance for use cases across mobile, client, edge and data center storage by leveraging these important capabilities:

Industry-leading bit-density, up to 28% more compact than leading competitors’⁽¹⁾ latest products
Industry-leading NAND I/O speeds of 2,400 MT/s,⁽¹⁾ a 50% improvement over the prior generation ⁽²⁾
24% better read performance over the prior-gen ⁽²⁾
31% better programming performance over the prior-gen ⁽²⁾

“Micron’s 232-layer QLC NAND is a key enabler of our high-capacity DirectFlashModule,” said Bill Cerreta, GM, hyperscale, Pure Storage, Inc. “Thanks to Micron’s NAND innovation, Pure Storage can take one more step on its quest to replace all HDDs in the data center by 2028.”

Micron 2500 Client SSD
The 2500 raises the bar for everyday computing with its best-in-class performance to significantly enhance the PC user experience. For the second-gen in a row, the company is 1st to ship QLC-based client NVMe SSDs with the highest NAND layer count. The SSD stands alone as the world’s 1st client SSD to integrate 200+ layer QLC NAND.

“We are impressed with the capabilities of the Micron 2500 SSD, so we are excited to qualify it for our mainstream platform storage options. With its leadership user experience, it is the perfect match for our high-performance AMD Ryzen processors,” said Joe Macri, SVP and corporate fellow, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.).

The 2500 SSD enables a user experience that surpasses competitive TLC- and QLC-based SSDs while also setting a new storage standard for productivity in daily PC applications and computing tasks. It has demonstrated superior PCMark 10 experience benchmark results, outperforming the average scores of QLC and TLC competitors in the value SSD segment by up to 45%. ⁽³⁾

“Micron continues its leadership and innovation in the client SSD market as the industry shifts to QLC-based storage,” said Prasad Alluri, VP and GM, client storage group, Micron. “We anticipate that the 2500 SSD will further accelerate QLC adoption in PCs as it delivers a world-class user experience and value proposition.”

“By integrating the Micron 2500 QLC SSD into our PCs, we’re ensuring a superior user experience. Micron’s innovations in QLC NAND mean our customers enjoy the benefits of reliable storage without compromise,” said Y.C. Chen, associate VP, Asus Group. “Additionally, the compact form factor and 2TB density allow us to create class-leading thin and light devices.”

The Micron 2500 SSD is breaking new ground as the world’s 1st QLC SSD that approaches PCIe Gen 4 theoretical saturation performance, boasting up to 7.1GB/s sequential read speeds. It outperforms TLC-based NAND and QLC-based NAND SSDs in the value segment, with superior performance to competitor offerings: ⁽⁴⁾

Micron 2500 SSD performance
Performance metric	Vs. TLC client SSDs	Vs. QLC client SSDs
Sequential read	Up to 48% better	Up to 72% better
Sequential write	Up to 32% better	Up to 97% better
Random read	Up to 38% better	Up to 131% better
Random write	Up to 25% better	Up to 85% better

Enhancing the performance of the firm’s 2500 SSD is its accelerated caching feature which ensures the fastest RW performance under most applications. The 232-layer QLC NAND enables a robust SSD write endurance spec. Even the smallest capacity 2500 512GB SSD has enough endurance to support thirteen 4K movie downloads per day, every day for 3 years.⁽⁵⁾

The Micron 2500 SSD is available in 22x30mm, 22x42mm and 22x80mm form factors, in 512GB up to 2TB capacities. Notably, it features a compact 2TB 22x30mm option that is for handheld gaming devices. The single-sided design of these SSDs provides greater flexibility for OEMs to integrate into systems that range from ultra-thin devices to workstations.

Micron 2500 Ssd Group 2

⁽¹⁾_{Leading competitors are defined as SK hynix, Solidigm, Kioxia, WD and Samsung.}
⁽²⁾_{Comparisons are based on Micron 232-layer QLC NAND vs. previous Micron 176-layer QLC NAND gen.}
⁽³⁾_{PCMark 10 testing in Micron labs using the Full System Drive Benchmark. For details see: https://benchmarks.ul.com/pcmark10. Competitive value SSDs tested as noted in footnote ⁽¹⁾ .}
⁽⁴⁾_{Performance comparisons are based on publicly available data sheet information per footnote ⁽¹⁾ .}⁽⁵⁾_{Estimated 14GB per 2-hour 4K movie. The Micron 2500 (512GB) is rated for 200TB TBW (total bytes written), which provides enough endurance for a daily average of over 182GB/day of data written over its 3-year warranty. The 1 and 2TB capacities have higher TBW ratings respectively.}