Instead of the standard pin grid array, Samsung's PM971 SSD uses BGA which allows them to for a much smaller overall size, albeit at the cost of it being permanently soldered to a circuit motherboard. The three models, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB, will each be smaller than an SD card which is why these SSDs will be able to be used in future generations of small mobile devices. This not only foretells of a significantly higher storage capacity for your phone but also a faster one as Samsung's PR describes sequential read speeds of up to 1500MBps and sequential writes at 600MBps, or if you prefer, 190K random read IOPS and 150K random write IOPS. They haven't really given any details beyond those stats but you can try to glean some more information from the Japanese language article which The Inquirer links to in their story here.
"SAMSUNG HAS been showing off what it believes is the answer to the question of how to squeeze even more out of smartphone and tablet form factors. And with blazing speeds of 1500MBps it's hard to argue."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
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It seems like this has high
It seems like this has high enough write speed that you could wear the flash out over the lifetime of the device. With it mounted on the board, that will mean time to get a new device for most people. With a lot of smart phones in the “fast enough” category for what the users use them for, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have more things that are designed to force an upgrade.
See your point. 512GB would
See your point. 512GB would be nice. But ISPs need to change in United States first.
High write speeds wont
High write speeds wont necessarily lead to that as not all areas of the SSD will wear at the same rate. App/Data and System partitions should be ok while internal storage will depend on usage. Extreme shutterbugs, for example, may put a beating on storage with RAW images or 4K footage, but we’re not seeing that today anyway, with wear leveling and other features combining with cell type to extend device life. It wont make much sense if these BGA SSDs are not just as resilient as their PC-dwelling counterparts.
The cache, ‘SWAP’ or wherever apps write to (like when kill signal is sent by the Memory Manager) would likely be the main concern.
Just in case though, crafty partitioning should take care of that problem. That partition can be condemned and another chunk recreated at the end of the cells’ life cycle. Custom recoveries and ROMs will be needed. Of course, the manufacturers wont ever support it and it wont be an option for the vast majority of users.
I’m not sure that will be the
I’m not sure that will be the case. Just because it works faster doesn’t mean you’ll use it more.
I had a whole bunch of USB memory sticks and replaced them with 2 256gb msata ssd drives in small msata cases to make very quick usb drives.
Do I use them more? no. However, I spend less time twiddling thumbs waiting for data to copy.
This will be great now I can
This will be great now I can ditch my old Asus TF700 with its 235kb-1mb transfer speeds it’ll be a door stop.