14 DAY TRIAL // No doubt intent on putting a stop to SandForce's arguable supremacy among SSD controllers, Seagate and Samsung have apparently decided to pool their resources and create cross-license controller technologies for the next generation of solid state drives.
Seagate is already an expert in enterprise storage, even though it has, so far, focused on large-capacity hard drives, and Samsung is a leading developer of NAND.
Mostly, this pact will have them create a variety of enterprise storage solutions, no doubt building upon the former's manufacturing expertise and the latter's 30nm MLC NAND Flash memory chip technology.
Eventually, whatever controller is created will find its way into Seagate enterprise SSDs, though no specific time frame is given for this.
There has also been no hint as to what sort of performance parameters one can expect the upcoming solid state drives to meet.
"Seagate has long recognized that solid state technology has an important role to play in the comprehensive solutions the storage industry will deliver today and in the future, particularly in the enterprise market," said Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman, president and CEO.
"Today's agreement with Samsung will help us bring a compelling set of SSD innovations to the enterprise storage market, with benefits that range from enhanced performance, endurance and reliability to cost and capacity improvements,” Luczo added.
“Overall, this agreement with Samsung strengthens our SSD solutions strategy, and positions Seagate well as global demand for storage continues on its strong growth path," Seagate's CEO finished.
"We are pleased to be jointly developing a high-performance SSD controller with Seagate for the enterprise storage market," said Dr. Changhyun Kim, senior vice president and Samsung Fellow, Memory product planning & application engineering, Semiconductor Business, Samsung Electronics.
"Our green memory solution is designed to enable more energy-efficient server applications, which is expected to increase the use of NAND-based SSD storage in enterprise applications," Kim concluded.