Additional Advancements
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have showcased their world-leading NAND flash memory semiconductor technology. SK hynix has taken the lead in NAND industry stacking competition by opening the 300-layer era of NAND for the first time in the industry. Samsung Electronics also attracted attention by introducing its state-of-the-art Solid State Drive (SSD) products.
On Aug. 8 (local time), SK hynix unveiled the world’s tallest 321-layer 1 Tb TLC 4D NAND Flash at the Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2023 held in Santa Clara, California, in the U.S.
NAND flash is a memory semiconductor that retains data even when the power is off. Stacking the data storage cells vertically to increase data capacity is considered the core competitive strength of NAND flash. The tallest NAND flash so far has been 238 layers produced by SK hynix since May this year.
SK hynix announced that it will enhance its completion rate of the 321-layer NAND flash and begin mass production in the first half of 2025. Compared to the previous generation of 512 gigabits (Gb), the 321-layer NAND flash has improved productivity by 59%.
Recently, the emergence of generative artificial intelligence like ChatGPT has caused a sharp increase in the demand for high-performance and high-capacity memory. As a result, competition for NAND flash stacking has intensified. Following SK hynix’s mass production of 238-layer NAND flash, Samsung Electronics entered production with 236-layer and Micron with 232-layer.
SK hynix also unveiled an enterprise SSD (eSSD) with a PCIe 5th generation interface and Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 4.0, optimized for AI demand. The company also mentioned that it commenced the development of 6th generation PCIe and next-gen UFS 5.0.
Samsung Electronics showcased its new data center SSD product PM9D3a equipped with 8th generation V-NAND at FMS. SSD is a computer memory device that utilizes NAND flash memory. This product has doubled the read and write performance of the previous generation and increased energy efficiency by 60%. It operates stably even in hot and humid environments. Samsung Electronics plans to mass-produce this product within this year. Samsung also introduced SSD products like PM1743, suitable for generative AI servers.