Western Digital announces new SSDs for edge and mobile computing

Western Digital has announced two new NVMe SSDs – Western Digital PC SN720 and Western Digital PC SN520 – powered by a new NVMe storage architecture, scalable for a range of emerging implementations, from IoT and edge computing to mobile computing systems.

The new Western Digital NVMe client architecture and product portfolio will enable manufacturers of IoT devices, computing devices such as thin and light, 2-in-1 and embedded PCs and monitoring systems to enable the capture and transformation of the large quantities of data in real-time at the edge of smart city, smart home and personal data environments.

Cisco GCI estimates that nearly 850 zettabytes (ZB) will be generated by all people, machines and things by 2021.

With the advent of high-bandwidth technologies like 5G, augmented reality and facial recognition, new applications can benefit from the exceptional performance, power efficiency and capacity of NVMe and Western Digital 3D NAND to deliver an optimal user experience.

"Performance demands on PCs continue to increase, thanks to new applications like VR and AI, as well as the growing requirements for gaming, 4K editing and more," says TECHnalysis Research president Bob O'Donnell.

"This is driving PC makers to ensure that their storage subsystems can meet these expanded requirements with technologies like NVMe and high-speed flash SSDs. We're also seeing similar storage demands in other fields, including IoT applications in manufacturing, medical, video surveillance and more.

The new NVMe SSD firmware and controller architecture is built to maximise the performance and scalability of Western Digital 3D NAND, and is in lock-step with the company's NAND evolution.

"With this new vertically integrated SSD platform, we are able to optimise the architecture to our NAND for low latency and power efficiency, and most important, for the growing range of applications benefiting from NVMe," says Western Digital devices business unit client SSD senior director Eyal Bek.

"The scalable architecture supports a range of capacity and performance points while streamlining system qualification to improve time-to-market for our customers.

The Western Digital PC SN720 and Western Digital PC SN520 are the first NVMe SSDs built with the new platform, which will deliver a broad portfolio of NVMe performance, form factor and power efficiency options.

Western Digital PC SN720—Leading-edge Performance and Western Digital 3D NAND

The Western Digital PC SN720 is currently sampling with select customers.

It will be available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities on a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor.

It delivers leading-edge performance with sequential read/write speeds of up to 3,400MB/s and 2,800MB/s.

Customers are supported by a 5-year limited warranty. Western Digital PC SN520—A variety of form factors with NVMe performance

Western Digital PC SN520 is also currently sampling with select customers.

It will be available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities.

For greatest design flexibility and one of the lowest power draws in the industry, the Western Digital PC SN520 will be available as single-sided M.2 2280, M.2 2242, or M.2 2230 form factors.