Storage is one of the first world problems when it comes to modern computing devices. We can’t have enough of it on iPhones and laptops, and we want it to be as fast as possible. It’s pretty self-explanatory why having more storage for pictures, media, and apps is better. But we don’t want to deal with slow memory, whether that’s iPhone flash storage, microSD cards, hard drives or SSDs. The fastest the storage, the better performance any computing device will deliver. And Samsung just announced that it’s ready to mass-produce high-speed 512GB SSDs that weigh just 1g and have a volume about a hundredth of a 2.5-inch SSD or HDD.
These SSDs will likely equip ultra-thin laptops of the future, with the 2016 MacBook Pro being one likely candidate for the new SSD.
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The new NVMe PCIe SSD memory (PM971-NVMe SSD) is built into a single ball grid array package (BGA) using 16 of Samsung’s “48-layer 256-gigabit (Gb) V-NAND flash chips, one 20-nanometer 4Gb LPDDR4 mobile DRAM chip, and a high-performance Samsung controller,” as the company explains.
The drive measures 20 x 16 x 1.5 mm and is lighter than a dime (which weighs 2.3g). The device is about a fifth of the M.2 SSD drives that are found in current MacBook Pros. That means Apple could save plenty of space by using this particular type of SSD, which will be available in three versions, including 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB.
Performance-wise, the new chips deliver 1,500MB/s and 900MB/s sequential read and write speeds, respectively. “The performance figures can be directly compared to transferring a 5GB-equivalent, Full-HD movie in about 3 seconds or downloading it in about 6 seconds,” Samsung writes.
Ultra-fast Samsung SSDs also equip the 2015 MacBook Pro generation, with storage speed being one of the things reviewers loved about the laptops. The new NVMe SSD will deliver performance comparable with M.2 SSD drives – though, Samsung does have new M.2 drives that are even faster.
Apple has quietly improved its storage game in recent years, investing in its own memory controller to make SSDs even faster in its ultra-compact laptops, such as the 12-inch MacBook.
The company’s upcoming 2016 Retina MacBook Pro line is already rumored to be thinner and lighter than the previous generation. So using Samsung’s new BGA NVMe SSDs seems to be a no-brainer. Samsung has already started mass production of these insanely fast compact SSDs, and its customers will receive shipments starting this month.
