In the fast-evolving realm of storage technology, Samsung has set the stage for a bold prediction – the possibility of single SSD capacity reaching a staggering 1PB within the next decade. This audacious forecast follows the company’s showcase of a prototype 128TB SSD, deemed a “petabyte scale product,” at the 2022 Flash Memory Summit in San Jose. Although 128TB SSDs are currently rare, Samsung’s vision hints at a future where such colossal storage capacities become the norm.
Samsung, a pioneer in the SSD arena, not only revealed the prototype but also launched a 128TB SSD with a proprietary controller, showcasing their commitment to pushing the boundaries of storage capabilities. Concurrently, Silicon Motion entered the arena with an SSD controller capable of supporting up to 128TB, adding to the momentum of this storage revolution.
The momentum continued into CES 2024, where Phison took center stage, unveiling its X2 enterprise SSD platform. While initially listed on the company’s website with capacities ranging from 1.92TB to 61.44TB, the showcased version at CES boasted an impressive 128TB capacity.
The X2 controller, available in U.2 and E3.S form factors, not only raises the bar in terms of capacity but also delivers outstanding performance-per-watt. With sequential read speeds exceeding 14GB/s, sequential write speeds of 12GB/s, random read speeds of 3000K IOPS, and random write speeds of 800K IOPS, the X2 promises to be a game-changer in the SSD landscape.
Despite the understated presentation at CES, the emergence of the updated X2 marks a positive step towards the accessibility of 128TB SSDs in the market. While 1PB drives may currently be considered a distant dream, the relentless innovation in the storage industry suggests that it is only a matter of time before these colossal storage capacities become more commonplace, reshaping the landscape of data storage as we know it. Stay tuned as technology giants like Samsung and Phison continue to propel us towards a future of unprecedented storage capabilities.
