Samsung PM9C1a: New NVMe SSD with 5nm controller unveiled

With the Samsung PM9C1a, the manufacturer has introduced a new NVMe SSD that comes in the common M.2 form factors and is supposed to be faster and more economical than the previous PM9C1 thanks to a novel 5 nm controller.

Samsung PM9C1a: New SSD introduced

Thanks to a new type of 5 nm controller and also new V-NAND, the new Samsung PM9C1a NVMe SSD should be able to cope with everyday tasks as well as demanding games without any problems.

Connected via PCIe 4.0, the high-performance SSD is said to boost PC and laptop performance with new 5-nm manufacturing and seventh-generation V-NAND, according to press release.

Compared to the previous generation around the NMVe-SSD PM9B1, the sequential read speed is said to increase by 1.8 times, while the sequential write speed is still 1.6 times faster. Specifically, the Samsung PM9C1a achieves up to 6,000 MB/s read and 5,600 MB/s write. It also offers 900,000 Input/Output Operations per second (IOPS) read and 1 million IOPS write.

However, Samsung does without a DRAM cache. In terms of speed and lifespan, the new model is roughly on par with the popular, if already somewhat older Samsung 980 Pro – so the PM9C1a won’t set a speed record like Samsung’s 990 Pro with up to 7,450 MB/s.

Power consumption and security

At the same time, power efficiency per watt is said to have improved by 70 percent thanks to 5nm manufacturing. Standby power consumption has also been reduced by around 10 percent, according to Samsung.

In addition, there are security features like the Device Identifier Composition Engine (DICE), thanks to which cryptographic keys are generated within the SSD, with which the PM9C1a is supposed to be particularly well protected against cyber attacks and the like. Malicious changes to the firmware should also not be possible.

Offered in capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 terabyte, the Samsung PM9C1a NVMe SSD comes in M.2 form factors of 22 mm x 30 mm, 22 mm x 42 mm and 22 mm x 80 mm. However, Samsung has not yet provided any information about availability and prices.