Recently SK Hynix company updated catalog of products, and as part of the reporting conference talked about some plans for the future. Looking ahead, we note that the company plans to expand production of NAND-flash, but will not increase the volume of DRAM-memory production. This will directly mean that the company SK Hynix indirectly contribute to further price increases in the memory for a PC, because it will not be in a hurry to meet the growing demand for DRAM. If you are going this year to buy memory modules, the sooner it can do, the less will have to spend. According to conservative estimates before the end of the year will rise memory price for at least 25%.
The main achievement of the year for the company SK Hynix will start manufacturing 72-layer memory 3D NAND (in terms of - 3D-V4 (TLC)). Issue 256-Gbps 72-layer chips the company will begin in the second quarter and in the fourth quarter will start producing 512-Gbps 72-layer 3D NAND. SK Hynix's competitors in the face of Samsung and Toshiba company began to produce 64-layer 3D NAND, so that the flash memory is SK Hynix is considered one of the most compact in the industry, which means lower cost of storage of each data bit.
In the transition to 72-layer memory minimum block size is increased to 9 MB to 13.5 MB. This automatically increases performance when working with memory. However, another problem arises. The growth capacity chips makes it impossible to produce the productive SSD volume small, because there will be no duplication of effort. It is unlikely that this will lead to a lack in the market of inexpensive small capacity SSD, but, nevertheless, there may be relatively slow SSD. On the other hand, the company can pack 16 crystals in one case - and this is 1TB single-SSD or SSD 2-4 terabytes in the form factor M.2. These drives are fast enough.
Returning to the DRAM production, adding that in 2017 the company SK Hynix will not increase production volumes. Instead, it will continue to produce DRAM using 21-nm process technology and will begin a phased transfer of production to the production process technology memory 10nm class (presumably - with the norms of 18 nm). Transition to release 18-nm DRAM memory will increase output in terms of bits, but not on the chip.
The production volume in 2017 will be raised for the production of 3D NAND, for which the company uses the second floor area of the plant on M14. Chinese factory for the production of C2 DRAM will start to expand the clean room. Completion of the Chinese enterprise modernization is scheduled for 2019. After that, perhaps, SK Hynix will be able to produce more DRAM.