Samsung is working on 176-layer nand for PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 SSDs

Samsung is working on an SSD aimed at consumers with 176-layer v-nand that will be shown in the second half of this year. This seventh generation chip not only supports PCIe 4.0, but also an upcoming PCIe 5.0 and should have an input-output speed of 2Gbit/s.

In the second half of this year, Samsung will show a consumer SSD based on this 176-layer seventh-generation v-nand chip. Samsung Executive Vice President Jiahyunk Song wrote this in an editorial. According to Samsung, that chip is as high as the sixth-generation 100-layer v-nand, because the company has managed to reduce the cell volume by 35 percent. This allows even more layers to be stacked on top of each other, without interference or overheating.

The first SSD with this new v-nand should not only support PCIe 4.0 speeds, but also a future PCIe 5.0. Samsung says it can achieve an I/O speed of 2Gbit/s. The SSD must be optimized for multitasking “gigantic workloads”, such as 3D modeling and video editing simultaneously.

Samsung is also developing data center SSDs based on the seventh generation v-nand, which will deliver not only speed but also energy savings. According to the company, the new generation is 16 percent more energy efficient than the previous generation v-nand.

Samsung says it won’t stop at the 176-layer v-nand. It has already made a working chip with 200 layers, but is still undecided when it gets ready for mass production. It also has a new goal: to develop a 1000-layer v-nand. When that will happen is still unknown.