Samsung has started volume production of 64-layer, 256Gb V-NAND flash memory for use with an expanding line-up of storage solutions for server, PC and mobile applications.
Widely referred to as the 4th generation V-NAND, Samsung aims for the volume production to cover more than 50 percent of its monthly NAND flash production by year end.
The Samsung 64-layer 3-bit 256Gb V-NAND features a data transfer speed of 1Gbps, providing more than a 30 percent productivity gain, compared to the 48-layer predecessor. In addition, the 64-layer V-NAND has a 2.5V input voltage for its circuits, which leads to approximately 30 percent greater energy efficiency than the 3.3 volts that 48-layer V-NAND used. Also, the reliability of the new V-NAND cell increased by about 20 percent compared to its predecessor. Samsung expects that the industry will now focus more on the high performance and reliability of memory storage, rather than immerse itself in a chip scaling race.
Since Samsung began production of the industry’s first SSD based on 64-layer 256Gb V-NAND chips in January for a limited group of customers, it has been working on a wide range of new V-NAND-based mobile and consumer storage solutions. These include embedded UFS memory, branded SSDs and external memory cards, which the company plans to introduce later this year.
