Micron just announced the 3610 SSD, which offers PCIe 5.0 speeds with the higher density of Quad-Level Cell (QLC) chips. According to the company’s press release, this chip uses its G9 NAND that lets it achieve competitive PCIe 5.0 performance while offering more storage space in the same footprint. Because of this, Micron says that this is the first SSD in the world to offer 4TB in a compact single-side M.2 2230 form factor, allowing manufacturers to pack in so much more memory in thin-and-light laptops and handheld devices. Aside from the greater storage density, it’s also touted to have 43% better performance per watt for better power efficiency and battery life.
“The 3610 SSD combines cutting-edge PCIe Gen5 technology, Micron’s most-advanced G9 QLC NAND, and a sleek, single-sided design to deliver premium performance, capacity, and power efficiency,” Micron Mobile and Client Business Unit senior vice president Mark Montierth said. “The 3610 will enable ultra-thin devices that meet the growing demands of on-device AI, immersive streaming, and performance-intensive workloads.”
The memory and storage chip maker has previously used G9 TLC NAND on its high-end 4600 PCIe 5.0 NVMe client SSDs, which deliver a blistering 2.1M IOPS random read and write speeds, and up to 14,500 MB/s and 12,000 MB/s sequential read and write speeds in a 2280 form factor. While these are the best speeds that you can get from the company, it’s only available in 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. While the brand-new 3610 SSD offers relatively lower speeds, Micron says that they’re still good enough for AI applications, capable of loading a 20-billion-parameter model in under three seconds.
More importantly, using QLC technology on the 3610 SSD means that Micron can cram more chips in a single wafer, cutting production costs and making PCIe 5.0 SSDs more accessible. And even though the denser design of this chip means that it likely runs hotter than previous generations, it comes with host-controlled thermal management, allowing it to run under for extended periods without compromising reliability.
Even though the company markets this for productivity devices and AI applications, handheld gaming enthusiasts will likely be excited for this chip to hit store shelves, too, as it effectively doubles the largest available M.2 2230 SSD on the market. This means that users can install several AAA titles on their devices without having to worry about running out of space. We don’t have pricing and availability information for these chips yet, especially as they’re still under OEM evaluation. Furthermore, we hope that this technology alleviates the ongoing storage crisis a bit, especially as it allows Micron to eke out larger storage capacity from the same wafer size.
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