The heart of the drives is still Samsung's own MGX controller (excluding the 1TB model, which is powered by the older MEX controller) and the NAND is 32-layer 128Gbit TLC (3-bit per cell) V-NAND that is manufactured using 40nm lithography.
The addition of M.2 is new to Samsung's retail lineup, but it makes a lot of sense given that many PC OEMs have switched from mSATA to M.2, and ultimately M.2 will be replacing mSATA in full.Īrchitecturally the mSATA and M.2 models are not any different from their 2.5' sibling. The move isn't really surprising because Samsung released an mSATA version of the SSD 840 EVO a bit over a year ago and when the 850 EVO was originally launched we were told that mSATA and M.2 models would follow later. With today's release, Samsung is expanding the 850 EVO lineup with M.2 and mSATA models. The initial launch only included the most popular form factor in 2.5', but did not address the upgrade market where mSATA and M.2 are constantly growing in popularity. It did well in our tests and showed that 3D NAND technology essentially brings TLC NAND to the level where planar MLC NAND stands today. Four months ago Samsung introduced the world to TLC V-NAND in the form of SSD 850 EVO.
