Samsung has revealed its plans to develop SSDs with a storage capacity of one petabyte (1,024 terabytes) within the next 10 years. The announcement comes amid the ongoing trend of decreasing SSD prices. According to a report by A&SMag, Samsung plans to achieve the 1PB storage target through various technological advancements.
One strategy is to employ node shrinks, which involves reducing the size of the semiconductor circuits to increase storage capacity. Samsung also aims to increase the number of layers in its flash chips to about 1,000. At present, NAND flash chips from Micron and Samsung have a maximum of 232 and 236 layers, respectively.
The company also plans to improve density through packaging and physical advancements, with bit density as a significant driver. Currently, commercial SSDs can store up to four bits per memory cell, known as quad-level cells or QLC. The next step is penta-level cells (PLC) storing five bits of data and then hexa-level cells (HLC) with six bits. However, increasing cell bit density is a complex process, as it results in faster wear and reduced performance.
The sources for this piece include an article in PCGamer.