Samsung Launches Consumer QLC SSDs Which May End Hard Drive Age

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There is news that Samsung’s world’s first customer quad-level cell (QLC) SSD has started mass production. Since it is a new ting, many of you don’t know what QLC is. So, firstly, we will introduce it to you.

What Is QLC and Its Trend

QLC is a kind of 4 bits/cell flash technology and it is the next generation of the current TLC (3 bits/cell) in cell bit capacity. Intel/Micron found the QLC, and SK Hynix and WD/Toshiba have already begun to produce QLC chips. To a certain extent, you can think that QLC SDDs are in produced.

For instance, Micron owns a 7.68 T QLC SSD which is called the 5210 ION. While SK Hynix has not announced that any QLC technology is developed.

In the earlier time of this month, Samsung announced that there is a big development of the QLC SSD. It is also said that the 4 TB QLC consumer SSD is in mass production.

This device applies 32 x 1Tbit（128GB）64-layer V-NAND die. Its sequential reads speed can reach 540MB/second and the sequential writes speed can be up to 520MB/second.

By comparison, Micron Technology’s 5210 ION owns 549MB/second sequential reads speed, but the sequential writes speed is only 340MB/second.

Now, you can see that Samsung is able to balance the sequential reads and writes performance relatively.

But, you had to admit that Samsung hasn’t announced the random reads and writes IOPS numbers. This may mean that there is nothing worth showing off. Perhaps, you can think the controller is still under development.

It is said that there is a 3 years warranty. However, there is no lifetime TB written rating until now.

Jaesoo Han, Samsung Executive VP of Memory Sales and Marketing said that: “Samsung’s new 4-bit SATA SSD will herald a massive move to terabyte-SSDs for consumers. As we expand our lineup across consumer segments and to the enterprise, 4-bit terabyte-SSD products will rapidly spread throughout the entire market.”

The situation may be like this. But, you can note that this customer quad-level cell SSD has no name and no price. It is not available now. And there is no detailed IOPS and endurance information. Thus, it is too early to release the announcement now.

With the QLC technology in hand, Samsung proclaimed that it will “introduce several 4-bit consumer SSDs later this year with 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities” with 2.5 inches form.

Seeing this, you can look forward to getting more detailed information later.

According to the Samsung statement, it will produce 128 GB memory card for smartphones and M.2 NVMe SSDs in the following days of this year. Also, the mass production of QLC 5^th (96-layer) V-NAND will begin.

In addition, Samsung is trend to produce a die with more than 1 TB capacity. This aim may be completed in 2019 and the capacity of SSDs can be even larger.

Reading here, you will find that the future of desktop and notebook traditional hard disk is not bright. It means that this new Samsung consumer QLC SSD may end the traditional hard disk drive age.