Samsung has launched the first PCIe 4.0 automotive SSD in the industry, dubbed AM9C1, and built on its eighth-generation V-NAND technology. It follows the prior AM991 version and pledges an improved power efficiency by 50% and an increase in data transfer speeds. AM9C1 can deliver sequential read speeds of 4,400 MB/s and sequential writes of up to 400MB/s in the 256GB configuration.

While those speeds may not seem terribly fast, remember that this SSD is built for endurance to withstand the conditions experienced in automobiles. The SSD, using TLC flash along the way and features such as an SLC Namespace feature, offers better sequential speeds now at 4,700MB/s reads and 1,400MB/s writes but also enhanced reliability.

This does trade off capacity with endurance. Testing is underway on the AM9C1 in a 256GB variant, but built-in support is for capacities from 128GB to 2TB. With the 2TB version, Samsung is targeting to start mass production as early as a few months from now, promising that it’s “the most spacious automotive SSD available” so far.

Underpinning the reliable nature of the SSD, it has been certified compliant with AEC-Q100 Grade 2 to offer robust operation over a significant operating temperature range in which it reliably works from -40°C to 105°C (-40°F to 221°F).

Hyunduk Cho, Vice President and Head of the Automotive Group at Samsung Electronics’ Memory Business, said, “Samsung is in a unique position to offer the most extensive lineup of memory products that are optimally designed for automotive solutions. The company said: “Samsung will continue to lead the industry with its transparent memory technology for Physical AI, enabling customers across a broad range of fields – from autonomous driving to robotics technologies.

Last year, Samsung began production of its automotive UFS 3.1 memory and in March even got ASPICE CL3 certification for it.

More details at the source