- Samsung PM9E1 delivers PCIe Gen5 performance in an unusually small 22 x 42mm footprint
- Double-sided component placement enables high capacity despite severe physical space limitations
- Specialized PCB materials help mitigate mechanical stress during long thermal cycles
Samsung’s PM9E1 NVMe Gen5 SSD quietly emerged in 2024, surprising the industry when the company entered mass production without a major announcement.
This model followed the PM9A1 SSD released in 2021, introducing improvements in speed, capacity and power efficiency.
The drive measures just 22 by 42 millimeters, a significant reduction compared to previous M.2 2280 designs, but integrates a full SSD architecture optimized for high-performance workloads.
Technical challenges and thermal management.
Engineers employed a double-sided design, mounting NAND, DRAM, and power management components on both sides of the compact PCB to achieve capacities of up to 4TB.
Integrating all essential components into such a small form factor required careful thermal management and mechanical reliability considerations.
The development team generated detailed heat maps from simulated samples to optimize power distribution and account for heat-sensitive components.
Special PCB materials with low thermal expansion and side fill technology were implemented to minimize warping and ensure long-term reliability.
The SSD maintains high performance during extended workloads without throttling, even in demanding AI processing or high data transfer scenarios.
The PM9E1 is designed specifically for performance-based AI workloads, supporting sequential write speeds up to 12.6 GB/s and sequential read speeds reaching 14.5 GB/s.
These capabilities facilitate fast loading of large-scale AI models and fluid inference on the device.
“The PM9E1 is a storage solution that achieves ultra-small form factor and high capacity through advanced double-sided design technology,” said ChangWoo Sun, project leader of Samsung’s memory product planning team.
“In particular, it will serve as a core high-performance, low-power storage option in a wide range of applications, from mobile devices to ultra-thin laptops and edge servers.”
Additionally, the SSD’s low power consumption complements modern CPUs used in compact, high-performance systems.
The architecture addresses both efficiency and capacity, providing a high-speed storage option suitable for ultrathin laptops, AI edge servers, and other space-constrained platforms.
Despite its performance and compact design, the PM9E1 remains a specialized solution: its ultra-small form factor and dual-sided configuration push technical limits, but such a design also complicates mass production.
The SSD demonstrates Samsung’s ability to optimize storage density and efficiency; however, widespread adoption will depend on system integration and market readiness.
That said, the PM9E1 offers clear high-capacity storage benefits, although its initial impact on consumer platforms may be limited by production and design limitations.
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