Samsung Begins Mass Production of 4TB QLC SSDs

Low-Cost, High-Capacity SSDs Incoming from Samsung

Hard drive manufacturers such as Western Digital are rolling back their traditional hard drive production, even closing down their factories. That is because solid-state high-capacity storage for consumers is expected to grow significantly within the next few years. That is due in part to QLC SSDs. These will finally bring about higher capacity solid-state drive options which are cost-effective for consumers.

Pretty much every single storage company is manufacturing their own QLC drives. As one of the leaders in the industry, of course Samsung is preparing their line as well. Now announcing that they have begun manufacturing the industry’s first 4-bit (QLC, quad-level cell) 4-terabyte (TB) SATA solid-state drive (SSD) for consumers.

How Does Samsung’s QLC SSD Work?

Typically, as data stored within a memory cell increases from three bits to four, the chip capacity per unit area would rise and the electrical charge (used to determine information from a sensor) would decrease by as much as 50 percent. This makes it considerably more difficult to maintain a device’s desired performance and speed.

However, according to Samsung, their 4-bit 4TB QLC SATA SSD maintains its performance levels at the same level as a 3-bit SSD. It does this by using a 3-bit SSD controller and TurboWrite technology.  Al while increasing drive capacity through the use of 32 chips, all based on 64-layer fourth-generation 1Tb V-NAND.

What Kind of Performance Can Users Expect?

This 4-bit QLC SSD enables a sequential read speed of 540 MB/s and a sequential write speed of 520 MB/s, and comes with a three-year warranty. Which is practically similar performance as current 3-bit TLC drives. However, they are able to fit up to 4TB on the same space as a 500GB TLC NAND drive.

Samsung plans to introduce several 4-bit consumer SSDs later this year with 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities in the widely used 2.5-inch SATA form factor.