Samsung bets on 3D NAND chips
By Kim Yoo-chul
.jpg)
A Samsung solid state drive using the company’s latest second-generation three-dimensional (3D) vertical NAND flash chip technology is seen in this file photo, Thursday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics is shifting its focus considerably toward cost-effective and highly advanced three-dimensional (3D) NAND flash memory chips.
The world's biggest memory chip supplier believes the time for 3D NAND flash memory may have finally arrived.
On Thursday, Samsung said it began mass-producing second-generation vertical 3D NAND chips in Korea for the first time in the industry.
The chips will go for its corporate clients. Specifically, Samsung has advanced on its original V-NAND technology, stacking 32-NAND storage layers in one chip package.
The first-generation of 3D V-NAND, which had been released in August, stacked 24 storage layers. The layers transfer data through a proprietary interconnect, said Samsung officials.
"Samsung will use existing chip fabrication lines for the latest NAND chips supporting a 32-NAND storage layer, meaning that we expect more cost cuts in producing," said Oh Ji-yong, a spokesman at Samsung Electronics.
Samsung is the industry's sole chip supplier, which has been churning out 3D V-NAND memory chips.
Oh said Samsung aims to raise its stakes in flash storage with a new 1-terabyte solid-state drive (SSD) based on the latest technology.
The SSD is considered as the next-generation storage device that's been gradually replacing conventional hard disk drives (HDDs). It is based on the new Samsung NAND technology, in which storage chips are stacked vertically.
The new SSDs have two times the durability in writing data and are 20-percent more power efficient than conventional NAND-based SSDs in which storage modules are placed side by side, Samsung said in a statement. Prices for the SSDs were not immediately available.
More time will be needed for the firm to bring sizable profits from V-NAND chips, analysts said.
"The cost of manufacturing a flash drive is directly correlated to its die size. In order to lower the cost per gigabyte of these speedy drives, Samsung is trying to cram more transistors on the same die by shrinking their fabrication process," said another Samsung official.
"However, Samsung believes that the company has reached a point where the manufacturing process can't be shrunk any further without compromising on economic feasibility and disk reliability, something referred to as the scaling limit. This is where 3D NAND proves useful."