A lot has been discussed about the graphic cards and CPU announcements at Computex 2021. However, Micron is making a name in the storage and memory sections as they have announced the industry’s first PCIe 4 SSD with 176-layer NAND flash chips. The company also announced the start of volume shipments of 1-alpha LPDDR4x and DDR4 memory products.
Micron believes these are important developments for extending the reach of artificial intelligence and 5G technologies to the masses.
As for the newly announced SSDs, Micron offers them in two categories. The first one is the 2450 SSD which will target entry-level mobile PCs. It is offered in many M.2 form factors, which include: 22mm x 30mm, 22mm x 42mm, and 22mm x 80mm.
The form factors are offered in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB variants, along with some decent speeds, but they are similar to what a PCIe 3 would offer.
The read and write speeds for the 1 TB variants are 450,000 and 500,000 IOPS, respectively. The 500 GB variant offers a read and write speed of 380,000 and 500,000 IOPS, respectively, while the read and write speeds of the 256 GB variant are 190,000 and 400,000 IOPS, respectively.
The second category is the 3400 SSD which has the 176-layer NAND and comes with twice the capacity and performance of what the 2450 SSD category offers. The following capacities are offered in M.2 form factor: 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities and with speeds up to 6600MB/s.
The 2TB variant offers a read and write speed of 720,000 and 700,000 IOPS, respectively. The read and write speeds for the 1 TB variant are 630,000 and 700,000, respectively, while the 512 GB offers the following read and write speeds: 360,000 and 700,000.
The speeds of the 3400 SSD variants are more in line with the PCIe 4 technology, just like Samsung’s 980 Pro.
Pricing and real-time performance will play an important role in developing customer attraction. However, Micron hasn’t revealed pricing or launch details yet.
Via Hothardware