Announced at the same time as the high-end SSD 960 PRO, but arriving a month later, the newly-launched SSD 960 EVO is Samsung's attempt to push the M.2 PCIe NVMe format SSD into the mainstream market. The EVO uses the same Polaris controller as the 960 PRO but combines it with Samsung's 3rd Generation 48-layer 3-bit (TLC) V-NAND compared with the 2-bit MLC V-NAND used by the PRO.