TBW, are SSD makers really improving this number?

[Halejawian]

So recently a few SSD makers switched to the new 15nm TLC nand. TLC is the most economic out of SLC & MLC, yet performance is slightly lower. TBW is one of the commonly used stats for the estimating the life of a SSD. Some SSD makers claim that they can use this new TLC to increase the TBW of a drive 2,000 times with their particular drive, software, and components. At the moment these are flat claims but if these drives are really this much more reliable and at cheaper cost thanks to TLC being cheaper. Is this the end of the HDD era and the giant leap forward into SSD’s?

 

[Spectre694]

Not with planar TLC they aren't. TLC has significantly lower endurance and performance than both SLC and MLC especially with planar NAND. It is however significantly cheaper to make.

3D NAND on the other hand is a different beast altogether. (the only shipping is Samsung so all info pertains to that) 3D NAND even at TLC has actually shown better performance and higher endurance than planar MLC at the same process. It is a bit more complex to make than planar though.

tl;dr TLC no 3D NAND very much a leap forward