The Samsung PM9A1 is a solid-state drive in the M.2 2280 form factor, launched on September 22nd, 2020. It is available in capacities ranging from 256 GB to 2 TB. This page reports specifications for the 256 GB variant. With the rest of the system, the Samsung PM9A1 interfaces using a PCI-Express 4.0 x4 connection. The SSD controller is the Elpis (S4LV003) from Samsung, a DRAM cache chip is available. Samsung has installed 128-layer TLC NAND flash on the PM9A1, the flash chips are made by Samsung. To improve write speeds, a pseudo-SLC cache is used, so bursts of incoming writes are absorbed more quickly. The cache is sized at 49 GB, once it is full, writes complete at 500 MB/s. Thanks to support for the fast PCI-Express 4.0 interface, performance is excellent. The PM9A1 is rated for sequential read speeds of up to 6,400 MB/s and 2,700 MB/s write; random IO reaches 500K IOPS for read and 600K for writes.
At its launch, the SSD was priced at 90 USD. The warranty length is set to five years, which is an excellent warranty period. Samsung guarantees an endurance rating of 150 TBW, a typical value for consumer SSDs.