Samsung unveils 2.5-inch 16TB SSD: The world’s largest hard drive

arstechnica ^ | Aug 13, 2015 | Sebastian Anthony

[TigerLikesRooster]

Samsung unveils 2.5-inch 16TB SSD: The world’s largest hard drive

Third-generation 3D V-NAND is now up to 48 TLC layers and 256Gbit per die.

by Sebastian Anthony - Aug 13, 2015 9:16pm JST

At the Flash Memory Summit in California, Samsung has unveiled what appears to be the world's largest hard drive—and somewhat surprisingly, it uses NAND flash chips rather than spinning platters. The rather boringly named PM1633a, which is being targeted at the enterprise market, manages to cram almost 16 terabytes into a 2.5-inch SSD package. By comparison, the largest conventional hard drives made by Seagate and Western Digital currently max out at 8 or 10TB.

The secret sauce behind Samsung's 16TB SSD is the company's new 256Gbit (32GB) NAND flash die; twice the capacity of 128Gbit NAND dies that were commercialised by various chip makers last year. To reach such an astonishing density, Samsung has managed to cram 48 layers of 3-bits-per-cell (TLC) 3D V-NAND into a single die. This is up from 24 layers in 2013, and then 36 layers in 2014.

[roadcat]

10MB hard disk for $3500. What year was that, mid 70s? I remember buying a 20MB HD in the mid 80s for $400 for my PC. My boss complained because he bought his 5MB HD the year before for $400. Back then, 5MB, let alone 10MB was huge! In the 70s it was gigantic.

[PA Engineer]

What a complete waste of time and technology. No one will ever need more than 64K.

LOL. I remember when I installed my first SCSI port and purchased a 2OMB hard drive. I was king of the world!

[TXnMA]

"My first PC was a Tandy 286 with a 40MB HD."

Noob. '-) My first computer was an Apple][+ with 16 K of RAM (I upgraded it to 64K) -- and a Radio Shack cassette tape player as my "hard drive"...

[zeugma]

This is a 5 MB drive ca 1956.

[tophat9000]

So did i..did many a head alignment

[DB]

I believe the 8087 came out before the Weitek math coprocessors. The Intel guys who started Weitek could well have designed the 8087 at Intel. I purchased my 8087 very soon after the IBM PC-1 was first introduced (it had a socket for the 8087). It shared the CPU bus with the 8088 and used “escape” codes to hold the CPU while the coprocessor was accessing the bus...

[Talisker]

So two of these should theoretically store a human mind est... 27TB

M'kay, I gotta acks fora link for dat...

[Mike Darancette]

I used the 5MB fixed & 5MB removable drive.

[SgtHooper]

or a liberal mind, 64k

[Jeff Chandler]

Make optical backups in preparation for the next Carrington Event.

[Monitor]

My first PC was a Tandy 286 with a 40MB HD.

Ha! My first PC was a Morrow Designs Z80 with 64K of RAM, dual 360K floppies, and ran CP/M patched with ZCPR3.3. I could have gotten a 10MB HD for an extra $300, but I couldn't afford it.

[Monitor]

Altair 8800 FTW!

[roadcat]

I'm currently using 6 terabyte SSD's for my Macs.

My apologies, I meant 6 terabyte HD's - spinning variety. No way could I afford that as solid state!

[RansomOttawa]

What a complete waste of time and technology. No one will ever need more than 64K.

The figure was 640K, and Gates denies ever saying it, for example in his syndicated column in the mid-90s. Indeed, in the column he also notes that mainstream memory requirements double every couple of years. You'd expect the most successful software entrepeneur of all time to know something like that, I think!

Oddly enough, it's the kind of statement that makes sense in the short term: "For all practical purposes, you won't need more than 640K of RAM for the foreseeable life of this PC." (10 years after that, substitute "4MB"; a decade after that, substitute "2GB," etc.) However, Gates seems to deny having said it at all.

[RansomOttawa]

This is a 5 MB drive ca 1956.

There used to be a computer-recycling/used computer parts store here that had a 10MB drive platter from the 70s on display. I always thought that if I had one, it would make an amazing bistro table.

[rmlew]

Near the end, the article above suggests that it will be over $5,000. The going price for Samsung's 2.5-inch 2TB SSD is between $800 and $1,000. It's 5000 GBP or roughly $7800. The SSD 850 PRO costs about 480 for 1 TB, so this isn't crazy. However, we are dealing with R&D for a new product targetting servers. $16,000 would not be out of the realm of possibility, so I'd guess $12,000.

[Nuc 1.1]

Nope they were about the size of a two to three drawer file cabinet. My first project used four Gould 32/77 with a vector processor array. This allowed us to replace the then in use flux synthesis core model with a with a multi nodal first principles core. This was a significant improvement in license operator training nuclear simulators. We were at the limit of the hardware. Those were the days.

[Norm Lenhart]

I think it’s safe to say that you just shot that considerably over my head. My nerd/geek level is pretty up there but I bow to your pocket protector ;)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

LOL!

[Nuc 1.1]

No problem my friend. I am no where near as sharp as I used to be. Getting comfortable in my decrepitude. ;D)