SSD Controller
Samsung Pablo
Samsung PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 8nm (Samsung) 1 drive in database
The Pablo is Samsung's proprietary NVMe controller used in the 980 (non-Pro) from 2021. It is a DRAM-less design that relies on Host Memory Buffer (HMB) – borrowing a portion of system RAM as a mapping cache – rather than dedicated DRAM on the drive.
Pablo supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and NVMe 1.4. The absence of DRAM reduces cost, performance, and power draw, making the 980 a value-oriented product. Sustained write performance is lower than DRAM-equipped drives once the SLC cache is exhausted, but HMB mitigates the random read latency penalty typical of earlier DRAM-less designs.
