As the world keeps pushing for ever-thinner devices, the hardware industry keeps shrinking parts down beyond the miniscule. Samsung announced on Tuesday it will be launching a 512GB solid-state drive measuring 0.78 x 0.63 x 0.06 inches (20 x 16 x 1.5 millimeters). That's about the size of your average postage stamp, and one-fifth of the size of a normal SSD.

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It's called the PM971-NVMe, which isn't the most memorable name, although remember this is a computer component -- not really meant for the general public. Instead, Samsung is setting its sights on ultra-thin notebook and tablet manufacturers.

The PM971 doesn't connect to a computer through a conventional (SATA) connection, instead it can be installed directly on the motherboard which drastically increases its speeds. According to the Samsung, this little drive can download a 5GB HD movie in about 6 seconds with reading and writing speeds of about 1.5GBps and 900MBps respectively. And it weighs about 0.04 of an ounce (1 gram).

The PM971 doesn't fit into any normal motherboard slots, it is connected directly onto the board.Credit: samsung

Samsung will be putting out 512GB, 256GB and 128GB options

Samsung's new SSD allows manufacturers to offer slimmer and faster laptops and tablets, and the tiny size of the PM971 could allow for huge amounts of storage on future products without sacrificing volume. For now, Samsung is currently mass producing 512GB, 256GB and 128GB options, although it didn't release price information.

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Previously, Samsung paved the way for smaller and faster computer storage with the XP941, which is over five times larger than the PM971 at 3.15 x 0.87 inches (80 x 22mm) and connects through PCIe slots, which had previously been relegated to things like video, audio and Internet cards. While these PCIe SSDs are faster than SATA SSDs, they still aren't as fast as the new motherboard-connected SSDs.

A diagram showing the size difference between a standard SSD, an XP941 PCIe SSD and the new PM971 SSD.Credit: Samsung

As these mass storage components continue to get smaller and faster (and cheaper), we could see these kind of high-gigabyte numbers on future smartphones without needing to shell out over $1,000.

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TopicsSamsung

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