Samsung PM1731a ZNS SSD now official

Samsung Electronics unveiled its new solid-state drive featuring Zoned Namespace (ZNS) technology—the PM1731a.

According to Samsung, ZNS allows data to be grouped based on their usage and access frequency and stored sequentially in independent zones within an SSD. In addition, the ZNS SSDs can reduce the number of write operations, lowering the drive’s write amplification factor (WAF)—the amount of actual writes performed by the drive compared to writes initially instructed by the host system. The closer the WAF is to one, the more efficient and long-lasting the SSD will be.

“Samsung’s ZNS SSD reflects our commitment to introducing differentiated storage solutions that can substantially enhance the reliability and lifetime of server SSDs,” said Sangyeun Cho, senior vice president of the Memory Software Development Team at Samsung Electronics. “We plan to leverage quad-level cell (QLC) NAND technology in our next-generation ZNS drives to enable higher thresholds for storage performance and capacity in the enterprise systems of tomorrow.”

Based on ZNS, the new Samsung SSD is advertised to achieve a WAF close to one, a major improvement over the typical server SSD values between three and four. The ZNS will also allow users to take advantage of the SSD’s full capacity by eliminating the need for overprovisioning, which requires storage space for background tasks.

Built upon Samsung’s sixth-generation V-NAND, the 2.5-inch MP1731a will come in two terabyte and four terabyte models. It will feature dual ports, which ensures the drive’s accessibility for continuous operations with infrequent downtime. In addition, the company will make its ZNS technology available to xNVME and will also participate in the Storage Performance Development Kit (SPDK) community created by Intel.

Samsung plans to mass-produce its ZNS SSDs in the second half of the year and continue working with global enterprise storage companies to optimize its ZNS drives further.

Source: Samsung