AMD Changing SSD Strategy: High-end m.2/NVMe Drives to be Coming

[DocSwag]

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10318/amd-ssd-m2-nvme-r3-r7

Quote

AMD’s Radeon R7 SSDs were developed by OCZ and featured 64 Gb NAND flash chips from Toshiba made using the company’s second-generation 19 nm (A19) fabrication process. In many ways, the drives resembled OCZ’s ARC 100 and Vector 150 drives, but since Toshiba is phasing out its NAND flash made using 19 nm manufacturing technology, the Radeon R7 SSDs are also discontinued and right now online stores are selling the remaining inventory.

For the newer Radeon R3 family of SSDs, AMD chose a different partner. The drives are manufactured by a contract maker and then distributed by Galt, the company that distributes AMD’s Radeon-branded memory modules. Working closely with companies like SK Hynix, or OCZ, allows AMD to tailor certain aspects of SSD performance and offer a different (well, to a certain degree) differentiation point that is not available from anyone else. Moreover, since SK Hynix is a relatively small player on the SSD market, it is interested in increasing its share and may be flexible about pricing. AMD admits that the new R3 drives are indeed slower than the older R7 ones released earlier due to the movement from MLC to TLC, but it notes that they are considerably cheaper too, which was one of the primary reasons why the company decided to sell them. Furthermore, since Galt now handles logistics for AMD's DRAM and SSD products, it can do everything a little more efficiently in terms of costs.

Quote

 

AMD intends to introduce new higher-end Radeon SSDs towards the end of the year, the company said this week. Quite naturally, AMD remains tight-lipped about exact plans, but it confirmed that the new family will include faster SATA drivers as well as M.2/NVMe drives for future platforms. Keeping in mind that AMD does not seem to stick to one supplier of memory or drives, the new Radeon R7 SSDs (or will they be called Radeon R9?) may come from a new supplier. Nonetheless, if AMD intends to continue working with manufacturers with their own NAND (or, at least, a very tight relationship with actual makers of flash), then the list of its potential partners will be relatively short.

Quote

By offering an AMD brand SSD or DRAM module, it means that if a customer wants guaranteed compatibility and a single source for their parts, they can ring up an AMD distributor. This simplifies support for any component that needs to be replaced and means that inside and out everything comes up AMD (or as much as possible). It allows system integrators to offer their customers validated AMD hardware packages as well. 

So it seems that while the r7 ssds are now going out, AMD is planning on bringing new m.2 NVMe drives in the future. This would allow AMD to give guaranteed compatibility to customers who buy its products, which is always a good thing (though I can't think of any drives that wouldn't be compatible with current or future AMD systems). However, I believe this is another confirmation of Project Quantum. This seems to be yet another step made by AMD to offer a system complete with all AMD parts. An m.2/NVMe drive would only make Project Quantum even faster and because of the small form factor save some space. The only parts AMD currently doesn't have to make an ultra-high end Project Quantum Zen-Vega computer is a case (but they will custom build that anyways), a PSU (but I've heard that's going to be external), ddr4 ram (but I'd imagine with ddr3 already there they will release ddr4 alongside Zen, and a motherboard (which they can build themselves). This seems to be yet another step from AMD to make Project Quantum a reality.

[Djole123]

That is great!

 

#justreleasezenamd

[Raytsou]

Who even buys AMD SSDs? I thought it's for OEMs but even then I don't see many.

[nobelharvards]

How do they plan to compete against Samsung's 850 Evo for the sweet spot with 5 year warranty, or the 850 Pro with 10?

[Sakkura]

2 minutes ago, nobelharvards said:

How do they plan to compete against Samsung's 850 Evo for the sweet spot with 5 year warranty, or the 850 Pro with 10?

They don't. The new R3's are planar TLC and thus will be considerably cheaper, and the M.2 NVMe drives (presumably R9 branded) should outperform the 850 Evo and Pro by a crushing margin.

[SuperCookie78]

Can't wait to see a sata express ssd

[DocSwag]

5 minutes ago, SuperCookie78 said:

Can't wait to see a sata express ssd

Welp, you'll probably be waiting a long, long time then 

[Agosto]

25 minutes ago, SuperCookie78 said:

Can't wait to see a sata express ssd

SATAExpress will never be a thing, M.2 is better

[Prysin]

1 hour ago, Raytsou said:

Who even buys AMD SSDs? I thought it's for OEMs but even then I don't see many.

honestly, not many. But they look really cool. Like REALLY cool.

 

But price per gig is horrible (way to expensive).

[RexinOridle]

I donno man, still kinda look foward Samsung.

[shdowhunt60]

I wouldn't be surprised if AMD is planning on releasing all this stuff in the same timeframe as they're launcing Zen and Vega. Having a whole slew of AMD branded high-end products, just to get that mindshare.

[Notional]

The problem is that margins are so low on SSD's these days, that it mostly makes sense for the flash vendors to make their own SSD's.

 

Remember when Corsair were huge on the SSD front? They hardly have a presence anymore, because they are just another point of expensive, but don't really bring anything to the table. As such their products are no different, other than more expensive.

That is what I see the AMD drives as too. So unless they can manage to be competitive on price compared to performance, they really don't have a justification on the market (just like Corsair).

Maybe it makes sense for butique computers or such, to have a full access to AMD lines of products to keep prices down, but I don't see that in praxis.

[SurvivorNVL]

Well, if Zen is great, then I guess in the future I may go for an all AMD build.  CPU(s?), GPU(s), RAM, SSD(s), and motherboard.  Yeah.  Pretty much an all AMD build.  Only thing it is lacking is AMD fans and a case.

[Misanthrope]

6 hours ago, nobelharvards said:

How do they plan to compete against Samsung's 850 Evo for the sweet spot with 5 year warranty, or the 850 Pro with 10?

They might look gamery: angular design and shitty rgb lights. 

 

So in other words: they won't compete. 

[ThinkWithPortals]

C'mon AMD... forget your damn SSDs, just give us Zen already!

[Coaxialgamer]

I'm really hoping for a budget nvme ssd, but i don't think that will be happening anytime soon...

[M4st4M1nd]

Wouldn't mind some AMD SSD's