Samsung Publicizes 990 EVO SSD, Vitality-Effectivity with Twin-Mode PCIe Gen4 x4 and Gen5 x2

After Samsung’s earlier product web page snafu, the corporate is formally launching their next-generation mainstream consumer SSD at this time. The 990 EVO can be accessible in each 1TB and 2TB capacities, and gives an fascinating mixture of each PCIe Gen 5 and PCIe Gen 4 assist by permitting as much as 2 lanes of PCIe connectivity at Gen 5 speeds, or as much as 4 lanes at Gen 4 and beneath.

The discharge of the 990 EVO marks the return of the EVO SSD model after it was quietly put apart throughout the 980 era, when Samsung’s sole non-PRO drive was the vanilla 980 SSD. Consequently, Samsung’s personal efficiency comparisons for the brand new drive are in opposition to the latest EVO, the 970 EVO Plus, although much like how the vanilla 980 was successfully the 970 EVO successor, in some ways that is the successor to the 980.

The drives can be found instantly from Samsung. The corporate has set the retail costs of the drives at $125 for the 1TB mannequin, and $210 for the 2TB. These are stiff costs for a drive debuting within the highly-competitive mainstream SSD market, although admittedly commonplace for a Samsung drive launch.

Our unique story (with up to date technical specs) follows as beneath:

Initially Printed: 01/09/2024

Samsung’s launch of the 990 EVO M.2 2280 SSD seems to be imminent, as official product pages with specs went stay in sure areas a couple of days again earlier than getting pulled down.

Essentially the most fascinating side the 990 EVO will not be the claimed speeds, however the truth that it might probably function in both Gen 4 or Gen 5 modes with totally different variety of lanes. The not too long ago launched cell platforms from each AMD and Intel use Gen 4 lanes for the storage subsystem. Nevertheless, with progress in know-how it’s inevitable that this can transfer to Gen 5 sooner or later. In the mean time, thermal constraints in cell techniques could forestall pocket book producers from getting in for desktop Gen 5 speeds (8 – 14 GBps). A gorgeous possibility for such circumstances can be to maneuver to a two-lane Gen 5 implementation that might assist in retaining the identical Gen 4 x4 bandwidth functionality, however minimize down on the BOM price by lowering the variety of pins / lane depend on the host facet. It seems that Samsung’s 990 EVO is a platform designed with such a situation in thoughts.

PCIe PHYs / controllers have backward compatibility, and the 990 EVO’s SSD controller incorporates a 4-lane Gen 5 controller and PHY. Throughout the coaching part with the host, each the hyperlink bandwidth and lane depend might be negotiated. It seems that the SSD is configured to promote Gen 5 speeds to the host if solely two lanes are lively.

Samsung seems to be advertising and marketing solely 1TB and 2TB capacities of the 990 EVO. Primarily based on the product images on-line, the fashions look like single-sided items (making them suitable with a greater variety of cell platforms). The flash packages look like 1TB every, and the EVO moniker / commercial of Host Reminiscence Buffer assist / controller bundle markings within the product images factors to a DRAM-less SSD controller – the Piccolo S4LY022. The quoted efficiency numbers seem low for a 176L / 236L V-NAND product. TechPowerUp believes that these SSDs are utilizing an up to date V6 (133L, termed V6 Prime) with higher effectivity and yields in comparison with the common V6.

Samsung can also be touting much-improved energy effectivity, with switch charges being 2 – 3x per Watt in comparison with the 970 EVO. The Piccolo controller’s 5nm fabrication course of and the V6 Prime’s effectivity enhancements have a big say in that side.

Pricing and concrete launch dates for the 990 EVO usually are not accessible but. The delta in specs for the 1TB and 2TB fashions can be up to date within the desk above as soon as the drives are formally introduced. The 1TB mannequin is priced at $125 and the 2TB model at $210. Each SKUs can be found for buy at this time.