Samsung 3 core mex controller: The MEX Controller, Turbo Write and NVMe

As part of the SSD Summit in Korea today, Samsung gave the world media a brief glimpse into some new technologies.  The initial focus on most of these will be in the Samsung 840 Evo, unveiled earlier today.

The MEX Controller

First up is the upgrade to the controller.  Samsung’s naming scheme from the 830 onwards has been MCX (830), MDX (840, 840 Pro) and now the MEX with the 840 Evo.  This uses the same 3-core ARM Cortex R4 base, however boosted from 300 MHz in the MDX to 400 MHz in the MEX.  This 33% boost in pure speed is partly responsible for the overall increase in 4K random IOPS at QD1, which rise from 7900 in the 840 to 10000 in the 840 Evo (+27%).   This is in addition to firmware updates with the new controller, and that some of the functions of the system have been ported as hardware ops rather than software ops.

TurboWrite

The most thought provoking announcement was TurboWrite.  This is the high performance buffer inside the 840 Evo which contributes to the high write speed compared to the 840 (140 MB/s on 120GB drive with the 840, compared to 410 MB/s on the 840 Evo 120GB).  Because writing to 3-bit MLC takes longer than 2-bit MLC or SLC, Samsung are using this high performance buffer in SLC mode.  Then, when the drive is idle, it will pass the data on to the main drive NAND when performance is not an issue.

The amount of ‘high-performance buffer’ with the 840 Evo will depend on the model being used.  Also, while the buffer is still technically 3-bit MLC, due to its use in SLC mode the amount of storage in the buffer decreases by a factor three.  So in the 1TB version of the 840 Evo, which has 36 GB of buffer, in actual fact can accommodate 12 GB of writes in SLC mode before reverting to the main NAND.   In the 1TB model however, TurboWrite has a minimal effect – it is in the 120GB model where Samsung are reporting the 3x increase in write speeds.

In the 120GB and 250GB models, they will have 9 GB of 3-bit MLC buffer, which will equate to 3 GB of writes.  Beyond this level of writes (despite the 10GB/day oft quoted average), one would assume that the device reverts back to the former write speed – in this case perhaps closer to the 140 MB/s number from the 840, but the addition of firmware updates will go above this.  However, without a drive to test it would be pure speculation, but will surely come up in the Q&A session later today, and we will update the more we know.

Dynamic Thermal Guard

A new feature on the 840 Evo is the addition of Dynamic Thermal Guard, where operating temperatures of the SSD are outside their suggest range (70C+).  Using some programming onboard, above the predefined temperature, the drive will throttle its power usage to generate less heat until such time as the operating temperature is more normal.   Unfortunately no additional details on this feature were announced, but I think this might result in a redesign for certain gaming laptops that reach 80C+ under high loading.

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)

While this is something relatively new, it is not on the 840 Evo, but as part of the summit today it is worth some discussion.  The principle behind NVMe is simple – command structures like IDE and AHCI were developed with mechanical hard-disks in mind.  AHCI is still compatible with SSDs, but the move to more devices based on the PCIe requires an update on the command structure in order to be used with higher efficiency and lower overhead.  There are currently 11 companies in the working group developing the NVMe specifications, currently at revision 1.1, including Samsung and Intel.  The benefits of NVMe include:

One big thing that almost everyone in the audience must have spotted is the maximum queue depth.   In AHCI, the protocol allows for one queue with a max QD of 32.  In NVMe, due to the way NAND works (as well as the increased throughput potential), we can apply 64K queues, each with a max QD of 64K.  In terms of real-world usage (or even server usage), I am not sure how far the expanding QD would go, but it would certainly change a few benchmarks. 

The purpose of NVMe is also to change latency.  In AHCI, dealing with mechanical hard drives, if latency is 10% of access times, not much is noticed – but if you reduce access times by two orders of magnitude and the level of latency stays the same, it becomes the main component of any delay.  NVMe helps to alleviate that.

Two of the questions from the crowd today were pertinent to how NVMe will be applied in the real world – how will NVMe come about, and despite the fact that current chipsets to not have PCIe-based 2.5” SSD connectors, will we get an adapter from a PCIe slot to the drive?  On the first front, Samsung acknowledged that they are working with the major OS manufacturers to support NVMe in their software stack.   In terms of motherboard support, in my opinion, as IDE/AHCI is a BIOS option it will require BIOS updates to work in NVMe mode, with AHCI as fallback.

On the second question about a PCIe -> SSD connector, it makes sense that one will be released in due course until chipset manufacturers implement the connectors for SSDs using the PCIe interface.  It should not be much of a leap, given that SATA to USB 3.0 connectors are already shipped in some SSD packages.

More information from Korea as it develops…!

Gallery: New Elements to Samsung SSDs: The MEX Controller, Turbo Write and NVMe

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Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review (1TB) — Differing Series Controllers Compared

The Samsung 850 EVO is a third generation TLC NAND SSD, second 3D V-NAND product on the market, and the first SSD in the industry to feature 3-bit 3D V-NAND. At first people were weary of TLC NAND, due to the issues it presents. TLC NAND has much lower endurance and slower performance when compared to MLC and SLC.

By the numbers, this speaks to a SSD that might be slower and have a lower lifespan than competing products, however, Samsung’s TLC products have proven reliable, and after with two generations of planar (2D) TLC NAND products, more people are seeing TLC NAND products as a viable option. Now, Samsung have finally moved on to 3-bit 3D NAND manufacturing following their 2-bit 3D NAND manufacturing process.

The simple truth is that, unless you are using your system for intense media projects, there won’t be any visible difference whatsoever in what you see on your PC screen as compared to any other SSD, and, in fact, this might be the ideal consumer SSD.

From the manufacturing perspective, the transition to 3D V-NAND is more expensive for Samsung at first, however, over time their investment will pay off. 3D vertical NAND design helps to alleviate the issues of TLC NAND. It has allowed them to roll back to a 40nm lithography which allows for less cell voltage state interference from neighboring electrons and thus increases error tolerance and increase endurance. The 32 stack 3-bit cell design also provides for lower power consumption, faster performance, and greater density for manufacturing.

Last week we reviewed the 120GB and 500GB capacity Samsung 850 EVOs. These capacities feature a new 2-core MGX controller which allows for lower power consumption than the previous 3-core MEX controller used in the Samsung 840 EVO and 850 Pro. Today’s review is going to focus on the 1TB model. It, unlike its lower capacity brothers, still utilizes the 3-core MEX controller and should provide some better insight into the power consumption and performance differences between higher and lower capacities.

SAMSUNG 850 EVO SPECIFICATIONS, PRICING, AND AVAILABILITY

The 1TB Samsung 850 EVO comes in a 2.5″ 7mm form factor and has an MSRP of $469.99. Instead of having the same MGX controller the lower capacity models have, the 1TB model utilizes an MEX controller. While the controllers differ, the 1TB 850 EVO still uses the same 32-layer TLC 3D V-NAND. The new 3D V-NAND brings increased endurance to the table with a TBW rating of 150TBW. The MTBF rating is 1.5 million hours.

Just as the smaller capacity 850 EVOs, the 1TB drive supports AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption (FDE) TCG/Opal V2.0 and Encrypted Drive (IEEE1667). It features S.M.A.R.T., TRIM, and garbage collection. DevSleep is another feature that is supported. During DevSleep, the 1TB model consumes only 4mW, twice that of the smaller capacity models with the new MGX controller. On top of this, the new 850 EVO line comes with a five year warranty.

The 1TB 850 EVO is rated for up to 540MB/s read and 520MB/s write with up to 98K IOPS read and 90K IOPS write.

To archive these speeds Samsung uses a firmware feature they call TurboWrite. TurboWrite allows the drive to take a small portion of the TLC 3D V-NAND and simulate it as SLC NAND to achieve faster performance. The sustained speeds for when the TurboWrite buffer runs out has also increased in the new 850 EVO series. The 1TB mode should not have any speed degradation.

Finally, as noted in our lower capacity Samsung 850 EVO review, Samsung’s RAPID Mode has been updated to enhance error handling and fix compatibility issues with IRST.

PACKAGING AND COMPONENTS

Samsung has decided to go with a white and grey these for their packaging. On the front they are really pushing the marketing on their new NAND; it states “Powered by 3D V-NAND Technology.” On the back they have a stamp stating it as well along with text stating its 5 year warranty. In the package Samsung includes a warranty statement, quick installation guide, and a software CD.

The drive itself has a matte black finish and is accented by a grey square and text. This grey color is to differentiate it from the 850 Pro.

Taking a look inside, we can see the 1TB 850 EVO contains just 8 NAND packages, a Samsung controller, and a single DRAM chip. The overall design is very similar to the PCB of the 1TB Samsung 850 Pro we reviewed earlier this year.

The controller used in the 1TB EVO is a 3-core MEX controller, just like the one in the Samsung 840 EVO and 850 Pro. The DRAM on the 1TB 850 EVO is 1GB LPDDR2 and the NAND used in the drive is also the same as the NAND in the lower capacity models. Once formatted, the eight 3-bit 3D V-NAND chips provide for a total usable capacity of 931GB to the end user.

Overall the PCB is quite small, especially for a 1TB SSD. We would have really liked to see Samsung release a 2TB model to the market. A full sized PCB would easily allow for a 2TB model with 16 NAND chips.

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120GB1TB250GB3D NAND5 year warranty500GB850 EVOEvoFull Disk EncryptionIEEE1667MEXMEX ControllerMGXMGX controlleropal v2.0pc mark 8SamsungSamsung 32 layer 3D V-NANDSamsung 850 EvoSamsung V-NANDssd consistencyTCGTLCV-NAND 2014-12-22

Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review

Written by

Matthew Lambert

December 9, 2013 | 10:04

Tags: #1tb-ssd #msata #samsung-electronics #small-form-factor #ssd #ssd-840-evo

Companies: #samsung

1 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review2 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — Test Setup3 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — AS SSD4 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — CrystalDiskMark5 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — PCMark 76 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — Performance Analysis and Conclusion

Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review

Manufacturer: Samsung
UK price (as reviewed): MSRP £509. 99

It’s fair to say the original SSD 840 EVO launch was very successful. Thanks to its competitive performance, good value and tasty feature set, we awarded the entire range our Premium Grade award. Now Samsung is back with another set of SSD 840 EVO drives, having shrunk the entire range into the tiny mSATA form factor. And yes, this includes the 1TB model, and it’s this one we’re looking at today — a world’s first for drives this size.

Designed as an upgrade for ultra-thin laptops as well as desktops with mSATA capabilities, the fact that something so small can store up to 1TB of data is amazing in and of itself. For anyone unfamiliar with mSATA, the comparison shot below shows its size relative to the 2.5-inch version of the SSD 840 EVO.

Click to enlarge — Behold, the world’s first 1TB mSATA SSD

The better news is that the mSATA version of the EVO has the same recommended price as the regular one, so there’s no premium for the smaller size. We’ve listed £509.99 as the MSRP, since this is in line with that of the original drive, but with 1TB SSD 840 EVO models selling for around £460 it could well be less by the time it hits retailers’ shelves. Of course, mechanical drives are still far cheaper, but equally they’re much larger and slower. As well as the 1TB model, the 120GB, 250GB and 500GB ones will also have mSATA equivalents, but not the 750GB one. Also, unlike the 2.5-inch drives, there will be no upgrade bundles with mSATA to USB or mSATA to SATA adaptors supplied — a somewhat surprising choice, particularly for laptop upgrades.

The 1TB drive features four separate NAND packages (2 on each side of the PCB), each with a whopping 256GB crammed inside. Samsung is sticking with 3-bit MLC (TLC) NAND for the EVO mSATA range, produced on a 19nm process. Though many have previously raised concerns about the endurance and performance of such NAND, the latter appears to be mostly unfounded. Torture tests elsewhere also reveal such NAND to be easily capable of surviving huge workloads, while the latest figures from Samsung suggest the original 840 EVO drives can survive at least 2,500 program/erase cycles. The company also offers a fairly standard three year warranty, and has a couple of tricks to address the performance side of things.

Click to enlarge — A size comparison of the mSATA and 2.5-inch models of the SSD 840 EVO

The first such trick is TurboWrite, whereby a fixed portion of the TLC NAND (with fixed address space) is treated by the drive as SLC NAND when writing. As such, it stores data in one of two states rather than one of eight, leading to easier and faster writes. All writes regardless of size are processed in this way, then when the drive is idle, they’re flushed to the regular NAND. If you filled the TurboWrite buffer with a single write task with no idle time, the drive will drop to lower write speeds (from 520MB/sec to 380MB/sec for the 1TB model) as it’s forced to write to the slower NAND areas. The size of the buffer varies by drive capacity, but for the 1TB drive it’s a healthy 12GB.

Another trick is the software based RAPID Mode, essentially a one click RAM-caching mode available through Samsung’s Magician software, with the pending 4.3 version set to add support to the SSD 840 PRO as well as the EVO mSATA models. It’s limited to one drive in Windows 7 or 8, and won’t function properly with Nvidia’s storage controllers, but we saw it work very convincingly in our original SSD 840 EVO testing.

Click to enlarge — The new drive uses much the same hardware as the original, but on a much smaller PCB

The EVO mSATA drives again utilise Samsung’s own MEX controller, a triple-core ARM-based model that operates at 400MHz, the same as before. Note that unlike the 2.5-inch drives, the mSATA ones have no casing and thus no cooling. The controller’s cache is also the same, with the 1TB version offering a full 1GB of LPDDR2 for the job.

Unlike the full size models, the mSATA ones also support the DEVSLP sleep state, whereby compatible systems (e. g. Haswell based ones) can perform background tasks while operating in a very deep sleep state, much like smartphones. Samsung suggests the drive’s power consumption is less than 2mW in this state, which has clear benefits for battery life in the laptop and ultra portable markets.

Finally, as well as the usual AES 256-bit encryption, the SSD 840 EVO mSATA range also comes with TCG/Opal 2.0 encryption, much like Crucial’s M500, making it compatible with the eDrive protocol in Windows 8. Encrypting with your drive with BitLocker should thus have essentially zero performance impact.

Specifications

Interface: SATA 6Gbps
Nominal capacity: 1TB
Formatted capacity: 931.51GB (~6.8 percent over provision)
NAND flash: 4 x 256GB 19nm Samsung Toggle DDR 2.0 TLC
Controller: Samsung 3-core MEX
Cache: 1GB LPDDR2
Warranty: Three years

1 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review2 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — Test Setup3 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — AS SSD4 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — CrystalDiskMark5 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — PCMark 76 — Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA 1TB Review — Performance Analysis and Conclusion

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High Capacity Samsung SSDs for Servers / Sudo Null IT News This is due to the dynamic development of flash memory solutions and the reduction in its cost, as well as the growing need for high-speed data access.

For DBMS, virtualization and VDI, the number of read / write operations (IOPS) is much more important than the speed of sequential operations with large files. And here SSDs show their best qualities.

Today, many vendors already have SSD drives with a capacity of more than 1 TB in their product lines. Controllers have become advanced enough to manage this capacity, and NAND flash has become inexpensive enough to keep these products attractive. The next step is flash drives with a capacity of several terabytes. Similar devices have already appeared — models on 2TB Samsung 850 Pro and EVO.

Third dimension: 3D V-NAND

Over the past three years, Samsung has become one of the leading players in the global SSD market. The result of its vertical integration strategy is the SSD 840, the first mainstream SSD product based on TLC NAND flash, which has enabled Samsung to reduce device costs. To this day, the 840 EVO remains the only mass-produced SSD based on TLC NAND.

The SSD 840 Pro line of 128GB, 256GB, and 480GB MLC memory drives has also gained popularity among users. In them, the developers used the new MDX controller. It is based on three Cortex-R4 cores and uses an eight-channel structure, as well as a clock frequency increased to 300 MHz. Its processing power allowed it to use some additional features without performance loss, such as AES encryption.

The 840 Pro’s buffer memory has increased by 512 MB. DDR2 memory has replaced LPDDR2 memory, resulting in lower power consumption.

840 series performance using Samsung Magician benchmark.

The MLC flash memory from Samsung in these SSDs is based on the 21nm process technology and has a two-level cell structure. MLC memory is more commonly used on high-performance and expensive solutions, while low-end models use TLC flash memory with a lower number of write cycles and a slower speed.

Two years later, Samsung introduced the 3D NAND SSD 850 Pro.

What is multilayer flash memory and what are its features? The scalability of traditional NAND flash is limited. The 20nm process has become a hurdle that required innovation in NAND design to overcome. In conventional NAND flash memory, the cells that store information are flat. Such memory is easy to manufacture, but it has a number of disadvantages — to increase the capacity, you have to reduce the size of the cells, their influence on each other increases and the reliability of information storage decreases. The solution was 3D NAND, or V-NAND as Samsung calls it. The developers have added a «third dimension» by placing layers of transistors on top of each other. As a result, it was possible to return to a more convenient 40-nm process technology.

In Samsung 3D V-NAND architecture, the cells are cylindrical in shape, eliminating their influence on each other, and the increase in capacity is achieved by stacking cells on top of each other in 32 layers without compromising the reliability of data storage and speed. This design allows you to create more capacious, faster and more reliable memory. Multi-layer, three-dimensional flash memory is gradually becoming more complex. Last year, engineers were able to achieve a maximum of 36 layers, and in 2013, 24 layers were a record. Now it is already 48 layers.

MLC NAND and MLC V-NAND flash density in Gb/mm2.

Samsung PM863 and SM863 drives

In July, the company introduced the PM863 and SM863, new enterprise-class SATA 6Gb/s SSDs. Their deliveries began in August. The PM863 and SM863 drives use a Samsung Mercury controller based on an ARM Cortex R4 processor.

Samsung PM863 and SM863 Enterprise SATA drives are up to 3.84TB and use 3D V-NAND flash. Detailed review review of the Samsung PM863 drive.

Samsung PM863 specifications:

Capacity	120 GB	240 GB	480 GB	960 GB	1. 92 TB	3.84 TB
Controller	Samsung «Mercury»
NAND	Samsung TLC V-NAND 32-layer 128Gb Flash
Sequential reading	380 MB/s	520 MB/s	525 MB/s	520 MB/s	510 MB/s	540 MB/s
Sequential write	125 MB/s	245 MB/s	460 MB/s	475 MB/s	475 MB/s	480 MB/s
Random Read in 4K Blocks	86K IOPS	99K IOPS	99K IOPS	99K IOPS	99K IOPS	99K IOPS
Random 4k block write	5K IOPS	10K IOPS	17K IOPS	18K IOPS	18K IOPS	18K IOPS
Read power consumption	2. 4 W	2.7 W	2.9 W	2.9 W	3.0 W	3.0 W
Write power consumption	2.1 W	2.7 W	3.8 W	3.8 W	4.0 W	4.1 W
Resource	170 TB	350 TB	700 TB	1.4 PB	2.8 PB	5.6 PB
Price	$125	$160	$290	$550	$1100	$2200
Warranty	Three years

The PM863 drive is an evolution of the Samsung 845DC EVO line:

Samsung 845DC EVO specifications	240 GB	480 GB	960 GB
Interface	SATA 6Gb/s	SATA 6Gb/s	SATA 6Gb/s
Form factor	2. 5″ 7 mm	2.5″ 7 mm	2.5″ 7mm
Sequential read speed, MB/s	530	530	530
Sequential write speed, MB/s	270	410	410
4KB Random Read Speed ​​IOPS	87000	87000	87000
4K Random Write IOPS	12000	14000	14000
Maximum power consumption	3.8 W	3.8 W	3.8 W
Resource	150TB	300TB	600TB
MTBF (reliability)	2 million hours	2 million hours	2 million hours
Warranty	5 years	5 years	5 years

The use of 3D V-NAND flash memory made it possible to increase performance by 40-50%, increase the durability and capacity of the drive. The latter rose to 1.92 and 3.84 TB, which allows you to make storage systems and servers more compact, for example, to equip servers in a 1U case with such drives and do without external arrays and FC-connected storage systems.

Samsung SM863 specifications:

Capacity	120 GB	240 GB	480 GB	960 GB	1.92 TB
Controller	Samsung «Mercury»
NAND	Samsung MLC V-NAND 32-layer memory
Sequential Read	500 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s
Sequential write	460 MB/s	485 MB/s	485 MB/s	485 MB/s	485 MB/s
Random Read in 4K Blocks	97K IOPS	97K IOPS	97K IOPS	97K IOPS	97K IOPS
Random 4k block write	12K IOPS	20K IOPS	26K IOPS	28K IOPS	29K IOPS
Read power consumption	2. 2 W	2.2 W	2.2 W	2.2 W	2.4 W
Write power consumption	2.5 W	2.7 W	2.8 W	2.9 W	3.1 W
Resource	770 TB	1.540 TB	3.080 TB	6.160 TB	12.320 TB
Price	$140	$180	$330	$870	$1260
Warranty	Five years

If the PM863 drive became the heir to the 845DC EVO, then the SM863 is the successor to its older PRO version. In the 845DC PRO, the developers switched to 3D V-NAND memory, while in the SM863, the first generation of NAND with 24 layers was upgraded to a 32-layer version for economy. Therefore, the SM863 has slightly lower performance. However, with its more durable MLC V-NAND memory, the SM863 is well suited for write-intensive applications. The PM863 is designed more for mixed workloads, such as media streaming, storage of rarely changed data, such as media files and database directories.

Samsung 850 Pro and EVO drives

Due to the growing demand for high-capacity SSDs, Samsung also launched two 2TB SSD models in July with the new MHX controller. The MHX controller is similar in design to the MEX controller, but it has increased the DRAM memory capacity to handle high-capacity flash memory.

For optimal performance, the NAND address table requires about 1 MB of DRAM per 1 GB of NAND flash. From an architectural point of view, increasing the capacity of the DRAM controller is not a problem, but the cost of the device also increases. Therefore, it is believed that SSDs with a capacity of 2 TB will occupy a relatively small niche.

The MHX controller supports up to 2 GB of LPDDR3 memory, while the old MEX controller only supports 1 GB of LPDDR2 memory. The 120, 250 and 500 MB EVO series drives use a lighter version of MEX called MGX with two processing cores instead of three, but running at a higher clock frequency.

The 850 EVO uses the same 32-layer 128 Gigabit TLC V-NAND flash as the lower capacity 850 EVO models, but the 850 PRO uses a new 128 Gigabit 2-bit MLC substrate.

Samsung 850 Pro: outside and inside.

The specs of the 2TB 850 Pro are nearly identical to its 1TB counterpart. The performance is exactly the same, but the power consumption in DevSleep mode is slightly higher due to the additional DRAM, despite the greater power efficiency of LPDDR3 compared to LPDDR2. The only fundamental change in the 850 Pro is the switch to V-NAND.

The 850 Pro has the same SATA 6Gb/s interface and MHX controller as the 840 EVO. Samsung has so far refrained from releasing PCIe SSDs — this market is relatively small. The firmware of the 850 Pro is adapted to the features of V-NAND.

Samsung 2TB SSD specification comparison:

Model	850 PRO	850 EVO
Controller	Samsung MHX
NAND	Samsung 128Gb 40nm MLC V-NAND	Samsung 128Gb 40nm TLC V-NAND 32-layer
DRAM (LPDDR3)	2 GB
Sequential Read	550 MB/s	540 MB/s
Sequential write	520 MB/s	520 MB/s
Random Read in 4K Blocks	100K IOPS	98K IOPS
Random 4k block write	90K IOPS	90K IOPS
Power	5mW (DevSLP) / 3. 3W (read) / 3.4W (write)	5mW (DevSLP) / 3.7W (read) / 4.7W (write)
Encryption	AES-256, TCG Opal 2.0 & IEEE-1667 (eDrive supported)
Warranty life	300 TB	150 TB
Warranty	10 years	5 years
Price	$1000	$800

The memory in the 850 Pro is still 32-layer, that is, Samsung has increased the capacity with the same process technology. This simplifies production and gives better performance in smaller capacities. Samsung has brought the estimated amount of data — the resource of drives in this series — up to 300 TB, and the warranty has been increased to 10 years.

Samsung SSD 850 Pro line specifications

Capacity	128 GB	256 GB	512 GB	1 TB	2 TB
Controller	MEX				MHX
NAND	Samsung MLC V-NAND 32-layer memory
NAND layer capacitance	86 Gbps				128Gb
DRAM	256 MB	512 MB	512 MB	1 GB	2 GB
Sequential Read	550 MB/s	550 MB/s	550 MB/s	550 MB/s	550 MB/s
Sequential write	470 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s
Random read in 4 KB blocks	100K IOPS	100K IOPS	100K IOPS	100K IOPS	100K IOPS
Random write in 4 KB blocks	90K IOPS	90K IOPS	90K IOPS	90K IOPS	90K IOPS
DevSleep Power	2 mW				5 mW
Slumber Power	Max 60 mW
Active power (read/write)	Max 3. 3 W / 3.4 W
Encryption	AES-256, TCG Opal 2.0 & IEEE-1667 (eDrive supported)
Drive life warranty	150 TB		300 TB
Warranty	10 years

Performance The 850 Pro V-NAND flash has fast write speeds that exceed the performance of the SATA 6Gb/s bus. Another quality is its durability. For all capacities except 128 GB, the warranty resource is 150 TB. With a typical load, this resource means a long service life of the SSD — more than 56 years with a capacity of 1 TB.

What distinguishes the 850 Pro from more expensive enterprise-level drives, however, is the lack of power failure protection and comprehensive data protection.

Unlike many manufacturers, Samsung makes all of its SSD components in-house. In particular, it uses a processor of its own manufacture, while most vendors are content with the popular SandForce or Marvell models. The result is high reliability, efficiency and smooth operation of all components of the drive.

Like the 2TB Pro version, the EVO has similar performance to the 1TB model, but higher power consumption due to the increased NAND and DRAM capacity. What distinguishes this drive from 2TB Pro is the use of TLC V-NAND memory, which is more economical in production: storing three bits in one cell instead of two gives a higher recording density. 2000 Gb of capacity is available to the user — 48 Gb less than in the 2TB 850 Pro. Part of the NAND memory is reserved for the Turbo Write SLC cache. TLC memory also requires more write capacity reservation to improve its durability.

Samsung SSD 850 EVO specifications:

Capacity	120 GB	250 GB	500 GB	1 TB	2 TB
Controller	MGX			MEX	MHX
NAND	Samsung 32-layer TLC V-NAND 128 GB
DRAM	256 MB	512 MB		1 GB	2 GB
Sequential Read	540 MB/s	540 MB/s	540 MB/s	540 MB/s	540 MB/s
Sequential write	520 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s	520 MB/s
Random read in 4 KB blocks	94K IOPS	97K IOPS	98K IOPS	98K IOPS	98K IOPS
Random write in 4 KB blocks	88K IOPS	88K IOPS	90K IOPS	90K IOPS	90K IOPS
DevSleep Power	2 mW	2 mW	2 mW	4 mW	5 mW
Slumber Power	50 mW				60 mW
Active power (read/write)	Max 3. 7 V / 4.4 V				3.7 V / 4.7 V
Encryption	AES-256, TCG Opal 2.0, IEEE-1667 (eDrive)
Estimated data capacity (drive capacity)	75 TB		150 TB
Warranty	5 years

Compared to the 840 EVO series, the 850 EVO series delivers a 13% improvement in performance. They also provide high sequential read and write speeds of 540 and 520 MB/s, respectively.

Survival test

The 850 EVO Series SSDs offer reliability and longevity by doubling the lifecycle of the previous generation 840 EVO Series SSDs, backed by a five-year device warranty. And with an average performance increase (Sustained Performance) of up to 30%, drives in this series become one of the most attractive storage solutions.

The 850 PRO SSDs are also guaranteed to last twice as long as their predecessors, the 840 PRO series. Each memory cell can withstand 6 thousand rewriting cycles. The write resource of SSD 850 PRO drives with a capacity of 128-512 GB and EVO is 150 terabytes of data, that is, when writing to a 40 GB drive daily, the resource will be exhausted only after 10 years. And for 850 PRO drives with a capacity of 1 and 2 TB, it is 300 TB. To highlight the reliability of the 850 PRO series drives, Samsung provides a 10-year warranty on the models in this series.

By the way, the exhaustion of the SSD resource does not mean the loss of the warranty. Samsung internally tested the 128GB 850 PRO drive — it withstood 8 TB of data and continued to work. As independent tests show, the real «survivability» of the 1TB 850 PRO drive also exceeds expectations. The testers wrote 6 Pbbytes of data to this SSD, and it worked perfectly. 3111 sectors failed to erase and were reallocated. This is 53% of the pool, 47% is left, so the drive is quite alive. 9-day storage of data with the power off showed that everything is fine.

Petr Chayanov, Co-founder/CEO Hostkey.ru :

We at Hostkey have been using Samsung Pro series SSD drives of all capacities available on the market for three years now. In operation, we have several hundred SSDs of this type of different series. During all this time, there were only 2 cases of their failure and delivery under warranty, only when rebuilding servers due to obvious power problems.

The use of such SSDs allows you to build a server with a high-performance storage system for little money. For example, a typical VPS node on SSDs avoids using a 12-disk array on SAS disks — we get the required capacity using a pair of 1TB SSDs and a pair of 3TB HDDs for online storage of snapshots. This approach allows us to offer a price for mass services at the level of DigitalOcean and other international market leaders.

More and more administrators are reconsidering their attitude towards SSDs — early series quickly failed, often without warning. We threw away almost all the SSDs purchased in 2010-2012, they did not live. Modern disks are reliable, convenient and have a huge resource.

For example, our regular SSD node for 100 virtual machines writes about 2TB of data to disk per day (iostat /dev/sda 86400), i.e. the resource of its disks will be enough roughly for 13 years. Since the disks will be replaced in 3 years due to their obsolescence, their resource is redundant for this task. Yes, all VPS are replicated several times a day to the hard drives of the same server and once a day to external storage.

In the online server configurator on our website, you can choose any combination of SSD and HDD media — from 128 to 1TB SSD and HDD from 500 to 8TB, including traditional 600GB 15K SAS drives. Servers from 2 to 24 disks and more are available for rent on the most modern controllers from LSI.

What’s next?

The development of SSD is considered a very promising direction. There is currently an active process to optimize the features and reduce the price of SSDs in order to make the use of SSDs mainstream. Their capacity is growing.

At the Flash Memory Summit in California in August, Samsung unveiled the world’s largest SSD. The 2.5-inch form factor can store 16 terabytes of data. And this despite the fact that the capacity of traditional HDD hard drives now does not exceed 10 TB. Samsung was able to achieve this capacity thanks to 256-gigabit 3D V-NAND flash memory with 48 three-bit TLC layers.

Gartner analysts predict a gradual convergence of the cost of storage (dollar / GB) of SSD and HDD drives. By 2017, they will almost equal.

If progress in SSD development continues at this pace, then HDD hard drives are unlikely to be able to compete with them in a few years. True, for this you need to significantly reduce the price of SSD. According to analysts, the wait is two years.

Review Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB.

Best SSD

I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but this is the best SSD I’ve ever seen, even though it’s TLC. This SSD shows a high speed of reading and writing even large files, even heaps of small ones. Its speed does not depend on its filling and is always stable. Of course, you can object to me — “You just saw a little SSD … .. that’s how I remember now it was one hundred times cooler … I don’t remember which one and when” But we live now, and now this is the best SSD. Why? Now I will explain, because almost every feature of it is its advantage.

The second benefit of is its incredibly stable write speed.

As you can see on the screenshots, the speed does not drop, how much the SSD is not full, just as when copying a large amount of information, the speed does not drop over time either. A rarity for budget SSDs. Great job.

The third advantage of is a very high random read rate (your favorite IOPS).

Judging by the SAMSUNG website, this 250 GB SSD shows a value of 97,000 IOPS in RAPID mode. Unfortunately, I have an AMD RYZEN 5 1600 and a motherboard based on the X370 chipset, which does not allow using RAPID technology (Using RAM as a kind of cache for SSD). But as for me, this is not a very reliable technology and not everyone wants to use the RAM for such purposes (it can also split off 4 GB. Imagine if you have only 8, what will it turn out to be?). In addition, in the event of an unexpected shutdown or power failure of the computer, the risk of data loss is very high. Whether it’s worth it or not is up to you. The figure without RAPID technology is also very high at 60,000 IOPS.

For comparison, here is the once good SSD KINGSTON KC300

True, it is 90% full and therefore the write speed is simply terrible. That’s the feature of the old SandForce controllers. On the Samsung, I repeat this is not observed.

The fourth advantage is the optimal controller for working with this TLC V-NAND SSD.

Really saved money on the controller in this model. But is it really bad if he does his job perfectly? Yes, this is not a top-end MEX, but there is no need for it here. As you can see from the tests, everything works fine. And if you don’t see the difference, why pay more … … um, that is, why the controller is better. A cheaper controller means a lower price and thus a more competitive product. If it was an M.2 SSD, then the price reduction could affect performance, but this is a SATA SSD and its speed is approaching the speed limit of SATA III.
The controller in the SSD is not just computing power, but a software and hardware component of the SSD, designed to quickly correct errors that occur in memory cells. In TL cells, this is especially true, so the controller microcode and timely firmware updates (if any, of course) are important.
I’ll strain you a bit with a theory describing various memory cell layout technologies and their operation.
SLC (SINGLE LEVEL CELL) — a cell that has only two states — 0 and 1, and only two voltage values. The result is unsurpassed energy efficiency speed and of course reliability, but as reliable as it is, so expensive, so they are not used in SSDs for mass production.
MLC (MULTI LEVEL CELL) — a cell with a multi-level structure, has four logical states (00, 01, 10, 11) and, accordingly, 4 different voltage values, which reduces its performance and increases the likelihood of memory errors that will have to be dealt with SSD controller.
And finally, TLC (TRIPLE LEVEL CELL) is a cell that has as many as eight logical states (000, 001, 010, 100, 101, 110, 011, 111) and, accordingly, a three-bit representation of the cell state. All this contributes to the occurrence of errors in memory, I will say more, in terms of the number of occurrences of errors, TLC SHOWS THE WORST RESULT AMONG ALL. Who bears the burden of correcting these errors? Right on the controller. And here SAMSUNG MGX showed its best side. As can be seen from the tests, the controller fully copes with its task, preventing frequent errors (due to the fault of tlc cells) from affecting the speed characteristics of the SSD. This is not always the case, and that’s why I didn’t like the TLC SSD so much. Until I met this. The complete victory of the controller over the shortcomings of cheap technology, which is why I called it the optimal controller for TLC V-NAND.

The main advantage, which in the presence of the previous ones kills all competition among TLC drives, is the low price.

Consider the sticker on the back of the SSD. For example, the production date and serial number matter. The serial number encodes the generation of the SSD and, accordingly, what memory is installed in it. You can find out if your SSD has a new generation of memory installed by the first three characters in the serial number. If you, like me, have S3N (or a number starting with values ​​that appeared after S3L (letters increase in alphabetical order), then you have a new 64-layer TLC V-NAND memory, previously used 48-layer TLC V-NAND memory.

Conclusion

Now disks with TLC, and even more so TLC V-NAND memory cell layout technologies, are not as slow and unreliable as, for example, 3-4 years ago. We have already learned how to make very fast and much more reliable SSDs, with excellent controllers that quickly correct errors that accumulate in memory cells than, again, I repeat, 3-4 years ago. So now, without any fear, you can take TLC V-NAND ssd, especially this model, which shows excellent results in terms of speed and reliability.
I hope we helped you in your choice. It was ProObzor — just about the complex, interesting about everything.

quality and budget / HDD, SSD, flash drives, other storage media / iXBT Live

I needed an SSD drive in my computer. Since my computer is old,
there was no point in buying flagship high-speed solutions. So I started looking
which is faster and cheaper. Has stopped the choice on GeiL Zenith Z3 512 Gb. Here and
the price is affordable, and the volume is sufficient, and the characteristics are not entirely sad. Below
I did some tests and will try to draw my own conclusions.

• Interface: SATA III
• Transmission speed
  interface, Gbit/s: 6
• Disk capacity, GB: 512
• Reading speed, MB/s, up to:
  520
• Write speed, MB/s, up to:
  470

The disc was bought in a local electronics store for 22,000 tenge ( The author lives in Kazakhstan ), which in other currencies looks like this: the price in dollars is $ 45. 8, the price in rubles is 2860 rubles. I am writing this to make it clear that this SSD really belongs to the budget series for the price.

Supplied SSD drive in a plastic blister with the name on it
disk, and the main characteristics are written on the reverse side:

Open the blister, take out the SSD. It is made in the classic form factor of 2.5 inches. Frame
disc is made of plastic. This is of course not very good in terms of cooling,
but do not forget that this is a budget solution. So let’s take it for granted. Yes and by
I can say from experience that my other SSDs in plastic cases work
years and no problems with overheating.

There is a sticker on the top side of the disc that gives the disc some
individuality, but in fact not carrying any benefit, since it will be located inside the system unit, and no one will admire it there. Well, perhaps
that fixies. On the reverse side there is a sticker with the serial number of the device.

The housing also has all the necessary mounting holes for the side
and lower disk mounting:

There are standard Sata connectors from the end. I have no complaints about their quality, here they use
thick enough copper wires that will definitely last a long time.

Now let’s move on to the filling of the disk. It opens quite easily, the bottom
the lid is held by latches, and with the help of a spatula they are opened without any
consequences for plastic.

The disk is based on two memory boards 29f04t2ancqk1, apparently
manufactured by Intel.
True, neither Google nor Yandex could tell me what kind of memory it was.

The controller in this case is a four-channel sm2259xt

This is a relatively simple but reliable controller, which is often
used in budgetary decisions.

Also, judging by the board, you can understand that it is unified, and
the manufacturer rivets the entire series of its SSDs on this base, only changing the number of boards
memory.

Also a cursory inspection showed that the overall quality of workmanship
normal. No crime has been identified.

Therefore, I collect the disk back and install it in the computer for
further testing.

My PC configuration:

Processor Intel Core I5-4670

RAM 24GB

Motherboard Asus B85M-E

Windows 11 OS

Monitored SSD is connected to the Sata 6 Gb/s connector

The system recognized the disk as Geil Z3 512Gb ( strange that budget drives always have in the name
declared memory ):

volume I create. By the way, out of the declared 512GB, 476.9GB are actually available:

Well, I immediately run the tests. First thing I check at CrystalDiskInfo 8.17.7 :

The program indicates that everything is fine with the disk, and it is really new ( is not
pay attention to the number of host reads, this was already the first test,
screenshots from which I did not take )

Next I run CrystalDiskMark
8.0.4 :

to what is declared by the manufacturer ( Read speed up to: 520 MB / s, Write speed
up to: 470 MB/s ) and even a little more.

Now let’s check the disk using the program AS SSD Benchmark 2. 0.7

Here, the read/write speed is close
declared. The truth is a little lower than stated. But it is also an indicator.

The next disk test program is HD Tune Pro 5.75 :

The program checks the write speed of the entire disk, and, of course, here
readings are lower. Which is closer to the real figures. But in general
also good for a budget solution.

The next program is Atto Disk Benchmark 4.00

The program again checks for not ideal speed when copying
ideal parrots, but shows speeds in real scenarios with which
the user will encounter. And in general, everything is within the stated and quite good.

And finally, I check the disk properties using smi_flash_id

Here, in fact, we see what we saw when disassembling the disk.

SSD drive GeiL Zenith Z3 512 Gb is a budget device. That’s why
I didn’t have big requirements for it at first. After testing, I made sure
what exactly for the money, this SSD is quite good. There are not enough stars from the sky, but the declared
corresponds to the characteristics. Such an SSD will work well on budget
assemblies, or not the newest computers, where the whole system, in principle, is not the most
fast. But at the same time, such an SSD can significantly speed up work if you put it instead of
already obsolete HDD. AT
In my case, the SSD will be used for the system, and it suits me. So
since my computer is already quite old, then it makes no sense to take something flagship
and fast, my computer simply will not physically be able to reveal the capabilities of such SSDs.

As for the manufacturer, I chose it because it is not quite
noname China who rivets discs in the basement. GeIL Corporation (Golden Emperor
International Ltd.) was founded in 1993 and during its 22 years of existence
received the status of one of the world’s leading manufacturers of RAM. Her
products are well known to both avid gamer enthusiasts and
professional overclockers. The company has been producing SSDs since 2012,
so this category of products for her is not new at all.