Intel released a high-capacity 3D NAND memory chip next year

At its annual investment conference last week, Intel unveiled the first information on 3D NAND memory technology it is developing and announced that these memory products will be released in second half of next year .

Rob Crooke, vice president and general manager of Intel's memory group, said the first 3D NAND MLC (Multi-Level Cell) memory will have 256 Gbit (32 GB) / chip (die) capacity. and will be integrated to 32 semiconductor layers. In addition, the technology also allows the development of TLC (Triple-Level Cell or 3-bit / cell) chip bases with a capacity of 384 Gbit (48 GB).

As you know, NAND 3D is a new generation memory chip design with a structure consisting of multiple semiconductor layers stacked in a cube shape, as opposed to the flat structure of the popular 2D NAND chips today. Flash memory is faster and more energy efficient than conventional physical memory, but production costs are still very expensive. Intel's MLC NAND 3D memory has a capacity of 256 Gbit / chip base, double that of Samsung products.

Therefore, by increasing the capacity for each chip base, Intel hopes to create a cost-effective breakthrough when these memory modules can be widely used on more systems. Electronic products that use NAND flash memory will have more storage at a constant price.

For high-end markets, Intel will develop a thin NAND memory chip of just 2mm but can hold 1 TB of data, Rob Crooke said. Over the next 2 years, Intel plans to produce storage cards for enterprise server systems with capacities over 10 TB. Rob Crooke stressed: "You will have enough space, maybe less than 1 TB but at a much lower cost. For thin, light devices typically like 2-in-1 computers or tablets then you can get more capacity as desired ".

Flash memory still accounts for about 20% of storage products sold in the market and is available on many different systems. According to Intel's vision, flash memory will account for 50% of the market share of memory used for laptops and 35% of the memory market share for servers by 2018.

Reference: PC World