Samsung wants to release PCIe 5.0 SSD for servers in Q2 2022

Samsung shows the first details of a PM1743 SSD for servers. This drive will have a PCIe 5.0 interface and will use tlc-nand. The PM1743 will be released in the second quarter of next year, according to Samsung.

ServeTheHome writes that the PM1743 SSD will be available with a singleport PCIe 5.0 x4 interface or a dualport PCIe 5.0 2×2 interface. For example, a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface would be good for a theoretical bandwidth of up to 16GB/s. Samsung does not yet share read and write speeds of the upcoming enterprise SSD, but these speeds will probably be lower in practice.

Samsung also shares that the PM1743 SSD uses its own TLC nand memory. This is Samsung’s V6 memory, with 136 layers. The company announced its seventh-generation nand memory in June, which consists of 176 layers. Samsung is not yet using this memory in its upcoming PM1743 SSD for servers.

The manufacturer will probably also develop its own controller for the SSD, but the company is not yet sharing details about this. Marvell already introduced a PCIe 5.0 controller for SSDs in May, which, according to the manufacturer, achieves speeds of up to 14GB/s.

The PM1743 will be available in an E3.S 1T form factor. That format is intended for server, enterprise and data center SSDs and was introduced as a replacement for the U.2 2.5″ form factor. SSDs with the E.3S 1T form factor are 76mm wide, 112.75mm long and 7.5mm thick Such SSDs are intended for a power of 20 to 25W, writes ServeTheHome.

Samsung also mentions a guaranteed endurance of 1 drive write per day. That is, users can write the full capacity of the drive every day during the warranty period without any problems.

At the time of writing, no platforms with PCIe 5.0 support are available yet. However, in the second half of 2022, Intel will release its Sapphire Rapids CPUs for servers. Those processors would include support for PCIe 5.0. That corresponds to the availability of Samsung’s upcoming PM1743 SSD. It is not yet known what the PM1743 SSD will cost.

The current Samsung PM9A3 (left) next to the upcoming PM1743 with PCIe 5.0 interface. Source: ServeTheHome