Samsung Electronics has begun mass producing NVM Express (NVMe) PCIe solid state drive (SSD) in a single ball grid array (BGA) package for next-generation PCs and ultra-slim notebook PCs. The new BGA NVMe SSD, named PM971-NVMe, features a compact package that contains all essential SSD components including NAND flash memory, DRAM and controller. Configuring the PM971-NVMe SSD in a single BGA package was enabled by combining 16 of Samsung's 48-layer 256Gb V-NAND flash chips, one 20nm 4Gb LPDDR4 mobile DRAM chip and a high-performance Samsung controller. The new SSD is 20x16x1.5mm and weighs only about one gram. The single-package SSD's volume is approximately a 100th of a 2.5-inch SSD or HDD, and its surface area is about a fifth of an M.2 SSD. The PM971-NVMe SSD enables sequential read and write speeds of up to 1,500MB/s and 900MB/s respectively, when TurboWrite technology is used. The performance figures can be directly compared to transferring a 5GB-equivalent, Full-HD movie in about three seconds or downloading it in about six seconds. It also boasts random read and write IOPS of up to 190K and 150K respectively. The PM971-NVMe SSD line-up will be available in 512GB, 256GB and 128GB storage options. Samsung will start providing the new SSDs to its customers in June worldwide.

Winbond Electronics has announced an expansion of its flash product portfolio with the introduction of a family of stackable SpiFlash memory devices. The new SpiStack W25M Series is Winbond's first to allow the "stacking" of homogeneous or heterogeneous flash, thus achieving memories of varying densities for code and/or data storage, while providing designers with the flash solutions most appropriate for their design requirements. The Winbond SpiStack W25M series provides a wide range of densities in the well-established 8-pin package to which designers are accustomed. Additionally, W25M memories feature the popular, multi-IO SpiFlash interface and command set. SpiStack homogeneous memories are achieved by stacking SpiFlash dies. For example, two 256Mb dies combining to form a single SpiFlash 512Mb NOR memory in the industry-standard 8-pin 8x6mm WSON package. Winbond's stacked product, W25M512JV, is also available in the widely used 16-pin SOIC or 24-pad BGA packages and is sampling now. SpiStack heterogeneous memories call for the stacking of a NOR memory with a NAND die, such as a 64Mb SpiFlash NOR blended with a 1Gb Serial NAND die, which gives designers the flexibility to store code in the NOR die and data in the NAND memory. Winbond's SpiFlash memory devices are manufactured at the company's 12-inch wafer fabrication facility in Taichung, Taiwan.