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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.