Toshiba, like SK Hynix, faced technological problems in the transition from the release of planar NAND flash to multi-layer 3D NAND memory. The undisputed leader in the 3D NAND market is Samsung, and somewhere near it goes Micron company . The Japanese and Western Digital company with them for the company (as the successor to Toshiba's partner - SanDisk) are still far from the truly massive supply of 3D NAND memory and products based on it.
The first generation of 3D NAND Toshiba (in the definition of the company - the memory of BiCS) did not become a development that went into mass production. The second generation of BiCS chips in the form of 48-layer 256-Gbit microcircuits has already got into separate smart phones and memory cards, as well as into one single series of SSD Tosiba BG. Samples 64-layer memory BiCS - the third generation of 3D NAND Toshiba - the company began to produce in August last year, proceeding to mass production of 512-Gbit 64-layer BiCS TLC chips in the first quarter of this year. It is with this generation of 3D NAND that the company expects to begin to displace the planar NAND from all its products.
This week, at the Dell EMC World, Toshiba will show the prototype of the client SSD XG series on 64-layer BiCS TLC memory. The SSD XG series is an OEM copy of the SSD OCZ RD400 series. What can the characteristics of SSD XG on the BiCS TLC memory differ from similar drives for planar NAND flash, the company does not disclose. A live demonstration of the prototype in the period from 8 to 11 May can help in the disclosure of its characteristics.
According to Toshiba, starting with the third generation of BiCS TLC, all planar NAND flash memory will be forced out of the company's products. It is unlikely to happen fast enough, but next year Toshiab will launch a new plant, completely oriented to the release of BiCS TLC, so by the end of 2018 it can quite keep its promise and completely switch to the production of multi-layer memory.