Samsung preparing new NVMe storage

New SSDs were spotted at South Korean trademark service.

The 990 PRO SSD launched in 2023 didn’t have PCIe 5.0 technology, even though competitors had already introduced their solutions. Since then, faster PCIe 5.0 SSDs have been released, but rather than compete with something that will eventually be replaced, Samsung has been waiting for faster controllers for their Gen5 launch.

Technically speaking, Samsung already offers an SSD with PCIe Gen5 support—the 990 EVO, which supports both PCIe Gen4x4 and Gen5x2 at the same speed. However, the company may now be preparing to launch even faster SSDs fully compatible with the Gen5 standard.

Names such as 990 EVO PLUS undoubtedly confirm that Samsung will be releasing a faster 990 EVO SSD, but whether it uses PCIe 5 or 4 is still unknown. A more intriguing update is the 9100 PRO, which might indicate how Samsung will restart the naming for its new generation of SSDs.

Samsung SSD trademarks, Source: KIPRIS

Currently, the fastest SSDs are approaching read speeds of 14.5 GB/s and write speeds of 12.7 GB/s. While there is still some room for improvement to fully saturate the PCIe 5×4 interface, these speeds are already significantly higher than the first-gen 5.0 SSDs, which were only capable of reaching 10 GB/s.

The new trademarks were submitted recently and have not yet been examined by the trademark authority. However, just because something has appeared as a trademark does not guarantee that such a product will ever be released. Additionally, it could take time for these products to appear on the market.

Source: KIPRIS via Sammobile