Yesterday started annual event profile as a conference Flash Memory Summit 2015. To this day the leading developers and manufacturers of flash memory produced brand development and special announcements. Samsung in the third consecutive year, announced the conquest of a new frontier in the production of multilayer or monolithic memory 3D NAND. So, Samsung has assured that it started mass production of 256-Gbit 48-layer chips 3D V-NAND cell with three-bit TLC. Until that moment, the company produced only 128-Gbit 32-layer chips 3D V-NAND with two-bit MLC and TLC three-bit cell.
According to the developer, the consumption of 48-layer chips 30% less than the 32-layer, provided the same amount of data storage. Thus the productivity in the production of 48-layer chips 40% higher, which means a higher yield of product in the production and eventually promises a reduction in cost. The 850 Series drives EVO SSD 48-layer memory will appear later this year.
I should say that it is too early to talk about the appearance of cheap and capacious SSD. According to analysts, is in the production of memory 3D V-NAND defect rate is approximately 50% - is significantly higher than the production of planar flash memory. Also, the higher the cost of processing wafers with 3D V-NAND - about 70% with respect to the 32-layer chips and 75-80% in the production of 48-layer circuits. So a significant reduction in price of SSD is not expected. By 2019-2020, the situation will change. Samsung will release will 100-layer chips, and the company SK Hynix - 190-layer.
In the previous week, Toshiba announced the development of memory 3D NAND, similar in structure and capacity of today's novelty Samsung: 48-layer 256 GB TLC. Only for mass production of such a memory, Toshiba will be ready around the second quarter of 2016. Intel and Micron will be in the best conditions, when at the end of 2015 will release a 384-Gbit 32-layer chips TLC.