Samsung Electronics today introduced the Samsung 950 PRO solid state drive (SSD), based on vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology and designed for high-performance consumer and business laptops and PCs. The drive's M.2 form factor means it can be isntalled in both notebook PCs and workstations. It is Samsung's first consumer-ready Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) M.2 form factor SSD with vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology; supporting the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) 3.0 interface. With the introduction of NVMe, the first protocol optimized for SSDs, users of the Samsung 950 PRO will benefit from improved performance and power saving which can help increase battery life and potentially reduce operating costs. The compact M.2 2280 form factor ensures compatibility with next-generation desktop and mobile platforms that support the M.2 PCIe slot and interface.

Featuring the PCIe Gen.3 x4 interface and supporting the NVMe protocol, the Samsung 950 PRO offers improved random and sequential performance over Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) interface drives utilizing the legacy Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) protocol. Users of applications that benefit from high input/output operations per second (IOPS) will experience up to four times faster performance than with traditional SATA SSDs.

The 950 PRO will be available in 512 gigabyte (GB) and 256GB storage capacities. The 512GB version delivers sequential read/write speeds of up to 2,500 MB/s and 1,500 MB/s. Random read performance is up to 300,000 IOPS, with write speeds of up to 110,000 IOPS. It features Samsung's second generation MLC V-NAND 32-layer 128Gb die with UBX controller and magician software.

The drive was built to last, with AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption to protect data and Dynamic Thermal Guard, which can protect the device and data in inclement weather from 0 to 70 degrees Celsius. It can also withstand physical shock of up to 1500G/0.5ms and vibrations up to 20G.

The 950 Pro is built with Samsung's 2nd generation 32 layer 128GB die manufacturing process, the company's third generation process which is currently in the "ramping up" stage uses 48 layers.

The NVMe driver produced by Samsung is currently supported on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. Support for Windows Server and Linux is set to arrive shortly, the company said.

Unlike last year's 10-year warranty, the 950 Pro only offers a five year warranty - up to 200 terabytes written (TBW) for the 256GB and 400TBW for the 512GB. The 950 PRO will be available beginning in October 2015, with an MSRP of \$199.99 for the 256GB capacity and \$349.99 for the 512GB capacity.

On Tuesday, Samsung also announced the new brand name "V-NAND SSD" for its diverse three-dimensional V-NAND products to promote the high performance of its products.

Among the first uses of 256Gbit 3rd gen V-NAND will be to expand the capacity of Samsung’s current product lineups. The 850 lineup, which Samsung will continue to produce as their leading 2.5" SATA SSD, recently received a boost from 1TB to 2TB. Come next year, Samsung will be transitioning the 850 Pro lineup from 2nd gen to 3rd gen V-NAND, and in the process releasing a 4TB 850 Pro.

Meanwhile the M.2 850 EVO, which currently tops out at 512GB, will be getting its own upgrade to 1TB via 3rd generation TLC V-NAND.

The newly announced 950 Pro will also get a capacity bump in 2016. A 1TB model will be released next year, utilizing the 256Gbit V-NAND MLC to double the capacity of the drive.

For enterprise V-NAND drives, the PM1725, Samsung’s PCIe card SSD, will be utilizing 3rd gen V-NAND, combining 8 lanes to offer what is expected to be 1 million read IOPS.

As for Samsung’s Enterprise drives, the 863 datacenter drive family will also be getting the 3rd gen V-NAND upgrade.

Samsung said it estimates that demand for solid-state drives in 2015 will hit 84 exabytes, with the demand predicted to hit 253 exabytes by 2020.