It was a curler coaster 12 months for NAND flash storage as shipments sank then recovered as a cyclical downturn reversed. Suppliers elevated price effectiveness by extending 3D layer counts and utilizing QLC flash, however taking a look at PLC and different excessive bits-per-cell counts proved disappointing.
The 12 months began with NAND fabricators experiencing depressed revenues as a provide glut met muted demand. They reduce manufacturing then noticed demand begin rising once more as prospects used up their current stock.
NAND foundry operators reduce $/GB manufacturing prices through the use of extra layers of their 3D NAND to construct increased capability dies. We noticed a gradual move of layer depend will increase throughout the 12 months, beginning on the 218-layer stage.
- March: SK hynix introduced a >300-layer NAND paper at a convention, Kioxia and Western Digital have 218-layer NAND
- Might: Micron builds 232-layer QLC SSD
- August: SK hynix introduces 321-layer NAND, Samsung has 300-layer NAND coming with 430 layers after that
- November: YMTC first to ship 232-layer QLC NAND
- December: Micron debuts 232-layer workstation SSD
All of the suppliers moved to have the NAND management logic fabricated individually and added to the underside or high of the die.
The usual SSD used TLC (3 bits/cell) flash however suppliers comparable to SK hynix subsidiary Solidigm and YMTC targeted on offering QLC (4 bits/cell) NAND, and compensating for its decrease write cycle endurance with over-provisioning and higher write cycle administration.
Storage array suppliers comparable to DDN, NetApp, and VAST Information took benefit of QLC flash to supply increased all-flash array capacities at a decrease price/TB and so had been higher capable of compete with disk drive arrays.
There have been no provider bulletins about penta-level cell (5 bits/cell) and past this 12 months following 2022 forays. These layer counts appear totally impractical as cryogenic cooling is required for the 6 and 7-layer tech, and write endurance and skim pace would each be more and more low.
SSD capacities rose within the 12 months, exceeding disk drive capacities, with Solidigm main the way in which. It launched a 61.44 TB capability SSD, the D5-P5336, utilizing QLC flash. Different SSD suppliers are transport drives with most capacities round 30 TB. These are nonetheless bigger than disk drives, which reached 24 TB with typical recording and 28 TB with slower write shingled recording expertise by 12 months finish, courtesy of Western Digital. This 12 months we’ll in all probability see 60+ TB SSDs from different suppliers in addition to Solidigm.
The EDSFF type elements began to make an look however to not the extent of killing off the traditional M.2 (gumstick) and U.2 (2.5-inch bay) ones.
One piece of flash business information that didn’t occur was Western Digital shopping for or merging with its NAND three way partnership companion Kioxia. SK hynix, a Kioxia investor by way of Bain Consortium, killed that concept off by objecting to it.
Western Digital is now going to separate its disk drive and NAND fab/SSD companies this 12 months.
China’s YMTC managed to beat US expertise export obstacles and produce 232-layer NAND within the 12 months. It could not be stunning if it introduced 300+ layer expertise this 12 months, together with Kioxia and Western Digital, that are each at the moment on the 218-layer stage with their BiCS 8 expertise. These three suppliers lag Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix. We additionally count on Kioxia and Western Digital to announce a BiCS 9 NAND initiative this 12 months and attain the 300-layer stage.
