Samsung was strangely absent from FMS this year, but they had us out to NYC yesterday for a briefing we've been waiting a looong time for:

Above is a spec layout for Data Center SSDs that are to be in the retail channel, meaning they will be available for purchase on the open market, not locked behind exclusivity contracts with a select few corporations, as was the case previously. Here's the abbreviated rundown:

  • 860 DCT
    • SATA
    • Low write workloads
    • 960GB, 2TB, 4TB
    • Low cost (~0.25/GB)
  • 883 DCT
    • SATA
    • Mixed workloads
    • Power Loss Protection
    • 240/480/960GB, 2TB, 4TB
    • $0.30/GB
  • 983 DCT
    • NVMe (M.2 / U.2)
    • Mixed workloads / higher performance
    • Power Loss Protection
    • 960GB, 2TB
    • $0.34/GB

The prices above are MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) as MSRP doesn't carry over to enterprise products quite the same. Performance details are above and below in the full press release, but the gist of them is that they are comparable to current Samsung SATA and NVMe products with the exception of random writes being rated at steady state sustained values (client SSDs are typically rated for reduced span random writes of shorter durations).

There was another thing to check out as well:

That's Samsung's elusive Z-SSD, now with the model name 983 ZET. It contains slightly modified V-NAND operating in straight SLC mode and with some additional tweaks to help reduce latencies – referred to by Samsung as Z-NAND. Here are the specs:

We did note that some of what drives those super-fast latencies is the use of a DRAM cache. We won't know how this impacts larger span random performance until we can test this product first-hand. Samsung also showed where they expect these new products to fall relative to other competing offerings:

I'm thrilled to see Samsung finally opening up their Data Center parts to the rest of the masses. We'll be testing and reviewing these as samples arrive. I personally can't wait, because Samsung's data center parts are known for having amazing QoS performance, and I can't wait to throw our enterprise test suite at them!

Read on for Samsung's full press release, with specs!

Samsung Electronics Unveils Comprehensive Data Center SSD Line Up for Enterprise and Business Big Data Applications

Comprehensive New Lineup Designed to Address Super Computing Trends of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things

Ridgefield Park, N.J. – September 4, 2018 – Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today unveiled the Samsung Data Center solid-state drive (SSD) lineup to address current and future trends in high performance computing storage in the big data era for small and medium businesses (SMBs). Samsung’s new family of Data Center SSD solutions, which consists of the 860 DCT, 883 DCT, 983 DCT and the 983 ZET, are engineered to meet the evolving needs of SMBs, including faster, sustained performance, higher capacities and enterprise-class reliability and security. 

Samsung’s Data Center SSD portfolio will raise the bar for efficiency compared to legacy storage systems, requiring fewer servers and reduced power and cooling for a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The new lineup delivers better Quality of Service (QoS) for SMBs by reducing latency and lowering data delays. The entire line provides enhanced reliability and endurance for 24/7 operation backed by a 5-year limited warranty and impressive Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) ratings.

“Samsung’s Data Center SSD portfolio provides SMBs with a future-proof lineup to fit their unique business needs in the incredibly diverse market,” said Richard Leonarz, director of product marketing for Samsung Electronics. “Samsung leveraged years of memory product engineering expertise to deliver a simple, yet optimized SSD lineup that addresses today’s super computer trends.”

The comprehensive SSD lineup includes the following solutions to meet the widest range of SMB data storage needs:

  • The 860 DCT is designed for servers requiring SSD-levels of sustained performance and is suitable for read-intensive workloads. It allows for a lower TCO compared to hard disk drives (HDDs) and offers high capacities up to 3.84 TB. The 860 DCT is the perfect solution for content delivery network systems and comes with a 0.20 DWPD rating.
  • The 883 DCT is designed for servers used to safeguard critical data, including power loss protection and end-to-end data protection. It offers a high QoS under the SATA interface and will be available in a number of capacities ranging from 240GB up to 3.84TB at a 0.8 DWPD rating.  
  • The 983 DCT is a high-performance solution for servers using an NVMe™ interface, which allows for blazing-fast speeds and high responsiveness. It comes in two form factors – U.2 and M.2 – and will deliver jaw-dropping sequential read/write speeds of up to 3,000/1,900 MB/s (U.2) and 3,000/1,400 MB/s (M.2). The 983 DCT is ideal for real-time big data analytics applications and comes with a 0.8 DWPD rating.
  • The 983 ZET is a powerful cache memory solution that offers a new level of performance with ultra-low latency, high level of QoS, breakthrough speeds and high reliability. It is the perfect storage solution for NoSQL DB such as application workload case, and it comes with a 10 DWPD rating.

All of Samsung’s new Data Center SSDs integrate with the advanced Samsung SSD Toolkit, which allows for efficient and simple maintenance, such as firmware updates, data erasure, over-provisioning setup and disk status. The 860 DCT, 883 DCT and 983 DCT are available now and the 983 ZET will be available September 24th. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com/us/business.

Key Specifications:

 

860 DCT

883 DCT

983 DCT

983 ZET

Interface

SATA 6Gbps

SATA 6Gbps

PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe™ 1.2b

PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe™ 1.2b

Form Factor

2.5-inch

2.5-inch

U.2 (2.5-inch 7mmT) , M.2 (22110)

HHHL (half height, half length)

Hardware

NAND

Samsung V-NAND

Samsung V-NAND

Samsung V-NAND

Samsung Low Latency V-NAND

CTRL

MJX

MJX

Phoenix

Phoenix

DRAM

4GB LPDDR4 (3.84TB)

2GB LPDDR4 (1.92TB)

1GB LPDDR4 (960GB)

4GB LPDDR4 (3.84TB)

2GB LPDDR4 (1.92TB)

1GB LPDDR4  (960GB)

512MB LPDDR4 (480GB, 240GB)

3GB LPDDR4 (1.92TB)

1.5GB LPDDR4  (960GB)

1.5GB LPDDR4

Capacity1

3.84TB, 1.92TB, 960GB

3.84TB, 1.92TB, 960GB, 480GB, 240GB

1.92TB, 960GB

960GB, 480GB

Seq. Read/Write2

Up to 550/520 MB/s

Up to 550/520 MB/s

Up to 3,000/1,900 MB/s (U.2 1.92TB)
Up to 3,000/1,050 MB/s (U.2 960GB)
Up to 3,000/1,400 MB/s (M.2 1.92TB)
Up to 3,000/1,100 MB/s (M.2 960GB)

Up to 3,400/3,000 MB/s

Power Loss Protection

Not provided

Provided

Provided

Provided

Data encryption

Class 0 (AES 256)

Class 0 (AES 256)

Class 0 (AES 256), TCG/Opal

Class 0 (AES 256), TCG/Opal

Total Bytes Written3

Up to 1,396TB (3.84TB)
Up to 698TB (1.92TB)
Up to 349TB (960GB)

Up to 5,466TB (3.84TB)
Up to 2,733TB (1.92TB)
Up to 1,366TB (960GB)
Up to 683TB (480GB)
Up to 341TB (240GB)

Up to 2,733TB (1.92TB)
Up to 1,366TB (960GB)

Up to 17,520TB (960GB)

Up to 7,440TB (480GB)

Warranty

Up to 5-year limited warranty

Up to 5-year limited warranty

Up to 5-year limited warranty

Up to 5-year limited warranty

  1. 1MB = 1,000,000 Bytes, 1GB = 1,000,000,000 Bytes, Unformatted Capacity. User accessible capacity may vary depending on operating environment and formatting.
  2. For detail test conditions, please refer to each product’s respective data sheet.

*860 DCT, 883 DCT: Performance measured using FIO 2.18 with queue depth 32, Z270 Intel SATA 6G port. Measurements are performed on whole LBA range. Write cache enabled. Performance vary depending on capacity.

*983 DCT: Based on PCI Express Gen3 x4, Random performance measured using FIO 2.7 in CentOS6.6 (kernel 3.14.29) with 4KB (4,096 bytes) of data transfer size in queue depth 32 by 4 workers and Sequential performance with 128KB (131,072 bytes) of data transfer size in queue depth 32 by 1 worker. Actual performance may vary depending on use conditions and environment. 1 MB/sec = 1,000,000 bytes/sec was used in sequential performance

*983 ZET: Based on PCI Express Gen3 x4, Random performance measured using FIO in CentOS 7.0 with queue depth 32 by 4 workers and Sequential performance with queue depth 32 by 1 worker. Actual performance may vary depending on use conditions and environment. 1 MB/sec = 1,000,000 bytes/sec was used in sequential performance

  1. TBW(Total byte written) is measured while running 100 % random 4 KB writes across the entire SSD (TBW = DWPD x 365 x 3 x User capacity)

*All documented endurance test results are obtained in compliance with JESD218 Standards. Please visit www.jedec.org for detailed information on JESD218 Standards

  1. For 5-years warranty case, please contact your local Samsung sales representative.

 

*The NVM Express® design mark is a registered trademark of NVM Express, Inc.