Samsung unveils PCIe SSD with data speeds of up to 2.15GB/sec and low power consumption of two milliwatts in standby mode
Samsung's SUPER-speedy SSD is a real power-sipper — 512GB drive draws a TINY 2mW: Yes, that's two milliwatts — Samsung's latest small form factor PCIe flash drive shunts data …
Context & Ripple Effects
Days before this announcement, Samsung had already put out the portable T1 SSD line at $180–$600, so the new PCIe part reads as the internal counterpart to its January 2015 flash push: same month, different battlefield. Where the T1 targeted consumers carrying files, this drive targets device makers who care that 512GB of flash can sit in standby on two milliwatts while still moving data at up to 2.15GB/sec over PCIe.
The spec sheet also previews the shape of Samsung's storage roadmap rather than a one-off: within 18 months it would ship a 512GB NVMe SSD weighing one gram, and later that year a 16TB 2.5-inch drive billed as the world's largest hard disk. Speed-per-watt, not capacity alone, is becoming Samsung's headline metric.
First-order effects
- Samsung gains a flagship spec for design wins in thin laptops and tablets, where the 2mW standby figure directly extends battery life claims against SATA-era drives.
Second-order effects
- Rival flash vendors are pushed to compete on the same two axes simultaneously — PCIe bandwidth and idle power — a contest that runs all the way to Micron's eventual PCIe 6.0 SSDs optimized for AI and data center workloads.
Third-order effects
- If low-standby PCIe flash becomes table stakes for mobile devices, storage stops being specified by capacity per dollar alone and starts being co-designed with DRAM power budgets — the direction Samsung itself signals with its LPDDR5 chip targeting 30% reduced power.
The trend: Flash storage is evolving from a capacity race into a bandwidth-per-watt race, with Samsung setting the pace in 2015 and rivals like Micron eventually answering at PCIe 6.0.