KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced that it has donated a command set specification to the Linux Foundation vendor-neutral Software-Enabled FlashTM Project. Built to deliver on the promise of software-defined flash, Software-Enabled Flash technology gives storage developers control over their data placement, latency outcomes, and workload isolation requirements. Through its open API and SDKs, hyperscale environments may optimize their own flash protocols, such as flexible direct placement (FDP) or zoned namespace (ZNS), while accelerating adoption of new flash technologies. This unique combination of open source software and purpose-built hardware can help data centers maximize the value of flash memory. KIOXIA has developed working samples of hardware modules for hyperscalers, storage developers and application developers.

"We are delighted to provide command set specifications to the Software-Enabled Flash Project," said Eric Ries, senior vice president and general manager of the Memory and Storage Strategy Division for KIOXIA America, Inc. "This is an important step that allows the ecosystem to bring products to market, and enables customers to extract the maximum value from flash memory."

TrendForce's latest research paints a vivid picture: Q2 saw the NAND Flash market still grappling with lackluster demand and being significantly outpaced by supply. The ASP of NAND Flash also took a hit, tumbling 10-15%. Nevertheless, there was a silver lining as bit shipments grew by 19.9% QoQ from a low baseline in 1Q23. To sum up, the Q2 landscape of the NAND Flash sector witnessed a 7.4% QoQ growth in revenue, reaching US$9.338 billion.

From Q2, Samsung began reining in production with a further squeeze expected for the third quarter. With inventories set to thin out, price hikes loom on the horizon, possibly offering a remedy to the chronic supply-demand imbalance. Yet, a crowded supplier landscape in the NAND Flash sector means that many players, faced with hefty inventories, will likely continue aggressive sales into Q3. Forecasts suggests a deceleration in ASP decline for NAND Flash products in Q3 to 5-10%. Riding the stockpiling momentum for the high season, bit shipments are set to rise, propelling Q3 revenue growth past the 3% threshold.

ProGrade Digital, Inc., founded with a mission to provide the highest quality professional grade digital memory cards and workflow solutions, announces the 3rd generation of its CFexpress Type B Cobalt-class memory card in a new 1.3 TB capacity. This new generation features the same industry-leading quality of ProGrade current 2nd generation 325 GB and 650 GB capacity cards, but now leverages PCIe Gen 4 interconnect with NVMe 1.4c host controller interface. ProGrade Digital's 3rd generation CFexpress Cobalt cards are fully compliant with the just released CFexpress 4.0 specification, and provide read speeds of up to 3,400 MB/s, burst write speeds of up to 3,000 MB/s, and sustained write speeds of up to 2,800 MB/s - ideally suited for the highest-resolution cinema-grade video capture applications. As in past Cobalt-class memory card generations, the highest endurance and reliability memory technology is utilized - ensuring years of trouble-free, high-performance capture.

"The introduction of our 3rd generation CFexpress Cobalt card at the 1.3 TB capacity point provides the extra space and unparalleled performance needed for the very highest resolution video capture needs," said Wes Brewer, Founder and CEO of ProGrade Digital. "Our inclusion of PCIe Gen 4 controller technology, coupled with upcoming USB4 high-speed readers will allow offloading speeds 3x greater than previously possible, providing a dramatic reduction in workflow processing time."

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, launched today the Best-in-Class Kingston IronKey D500S, hardware-encrypted USB flash drive providing military-grade security for classified data in transit. The D500S is FIPS 140-3 Level 3 (Pending) certified with new enhancements from NIST requiring secure microprocessor upgrades for stronger security and attack protections for government and military use. The drive self-tests upon bootup and includes thermal and voltage protection to automatically shut down when certain threshold is reached. Waterproof{{Footnote.N47812}, dustproof, shock and vibration resistant to Military Standards, crush-resistant and epoxy-filled, D500S' rugged zinc casing protects internal components from penetration attacks.

The Multi-Password option with Complex or Passphrase mode allows users to take ownership over their data, making it easier to remember the password to unlock the stringent security. Admin can reset a User password and enable a One-Time Recovery password to restore access should User password be forgotten. Both Admin and User can set a session-based Read-Only mode to protect the drive from malware on untrusted systems, while Admin can also set a Global Read-Only mode until reset. To keep data from getting into the wrong hands, Admin can enter a Crypto-Erase password that will destroy the data and reset the drive to prevent unauthorized access in compromising situations.

Recently, the spot market for NAND Flash chips has seen a rise in active price inquiries for certain products, a movement driven by successful increases in wafer contract prices. TrendForce reports this uptick primarily stems from negotiations in late August between NAND Flash suppliers and key Chinese module makers. These discussions led to a new wafer contract that successfully boosted the price of 512 Gb wafers by approximately 10%.

Other suppliers have also raised prices for their comparable products, signaling a shift in supplier sentiment: they are now less inclined to finalize deals at lower prices. This change has contributed to a short-term surge in the wafer spot market. Nevertheless, whether this surge in procurement is supported by actual end-user demand remains uncertain, as these orders have arisen in reaction to adjustments in supply-side pricing.

TrendForce expects that memory suppliers will continue their strategy of scaling back production of both DRAM and NAND Flash in 2024, with the cutback being particularly pronounced in the financially struggling NAND Flash sector. Market demand visibility for consumer electronic is projected to remain uncertain in 1H24. Additionally, capital expenditure for general-purpose servers is expected to be weakened due to competition from AI servers. Considering the low baseline set in 2023 and the current low pricing for some memory products, TrendForce anticipates YoY bit demand growth rates for DRAM and NAND Flash to be 13% and 16%, respectively. Nonetheless, achieving effective inventory reduction and restoring supply-demand balance next year will largely hinge on suppliers' ability to exercise restraint in their production capacities. If managed effectively, this could open up an opportunity for a rebound in average memory prices.

PC: The annual growth rate for average DRAM capacity is projected at approximately 12.4%, driven mainly by Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs coming into mass production in 2024. This platform's DDR5 and LPDDR5 exclusivity will likely make DDR5 the new mainstream, surpassing DDR4 in the latter half of 2024. The growth rate in PC client SSDs will not be as robust as that of PC DRAM, with just an estimated growth of 8-10%. As consumer behavior increasingly shifts toward cloud-based solutions, the demand for laptops with large storage capacities is decreasing. Even though 1 TB models are becoming more available, 512 GB remains the predominant storage option. Furthermore, memory suppliers are maintaining price stability by significantly reducing production. Should prices hit rock bottom and subsequently rebound, PC OEMs are expected to face elevated SSD costs. This, when combined with Windows increasing its licensing fees for storage capacities at and above 1 TB, is likely to put a damper on further growth in average storage capacities.

SK hynix Inc. showcased today the sample of the 321-layer 4D NAND, making public the progress on its development of the industry's first NAND with more than 300 layers. The company gave a presentation on the progress on the development of its 321-layer 1 Tb TLC 4D NAND Flash and displayed the samples at the Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2023 taking place Aug. 8-10 in Santa Clara.

SK hynix is the first in the industry to unveil the progress on the development of a NAND with more than 300 layers in detail. The company plans to raise the level of completion of the 321-layer product and start mass production from the first half of 2025. The company said its technological competitiveness accumulated from the success of the world's highest 238-layer NAND, already in mass production, paved the way for a smooth progress for the development of the 321-layer product. "With another breakthrough to address stacking limitations, SK hynix will open the era of NAND with more than 300 layers and lead the market."

NEO Semiconductor, a leading developer of innovative technologies for 3D NAND flash and DRAM memory, today announced its participation at Flash Memory Summit 2023, taking place in person in Santa Clara, California, on August 8-10. CEO, Andy Hsu, will deliver a keynote address titled "New Architectures which will Drive Future 3D NAND and 3D DRAM Solutions" on August 9th at 11:40 a.m. Pacific Time.

Earlier this year, Neo Semiconductor announced the launch of its ground-breaking technology, 3D X-DRAM. This development is the world's first 3D NAND-like DRAM cell array that is targeted to solve DRAM's capacity bottleneck and replace the entire 2D DRAM market. 3D X-DRAM can be manufactured using the existing 3D NAND flash memory process with minor changes, significantly reducing the time and cost spent developing a new 3D process. During the keynote, Mr. Hsu will reveal the 3D X-DRAM process flow and technical details.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it has initiated mass production of its new automotive Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.1 memory solution optimized for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. The new solution offers the industry's lowest energy consumption, enabling car manufacturers to provide the best mobility experience for consumers.

The UFS 3.1 lineup will come in 128, 256 and 512-gigabyte (GB) variants to meet different needs of customers. The enhanced lineup allows more efficient battery life management to future automotive applications such as electric or autonomous vehicles. The 256 GB model, for instance, has reduced its energy consumption by about 33% compared to the previous generation product. The 256 GB model also provides a sequential write speed of 700-megabytes-per-second (MB/s) and a sequential read speed of 2,000 MB/s.

TrendForce reports that OEMs have continued making concerted efforts to scale back production. However, given that the trajectory of market demand is still unclear, it's expected that the NAND Flash market will continue to be in a state of oversupply in 3Q23. Cautious inventory management by buyers is preventing a stabilization in NAND Flash prices even with an anticipated seasonal surge in demand for 2H23. TrendForce predicts that NAND Flash wafers will be the first to see a price hike in 3Q23 as prices for module products such as SSDs, eMMCs, and UFS will likely continue to fall due to tepid downstream demand. Consequently, the overall ASP of NAND Flash is forecast to continue dropping by about 3~8% in 3Q23, though a possibility exists prices may recover in 4Q23.

Client SSD: Although notebook shipments are expected to gradually recover in 3Q23, reversing an oversupply of SSD will continue to be challenging. Furthermore, a portion of suppliers have implemented aggressive promotions to secure customer orders and hit shipping targets in light of weakened demand and less-than-satisfactory order volumes from major clients, putting pressure on other suppliers. TrendForce estimates that the ASP of client SSDs will fall by 8~13% in the third quarter.

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has started mass production of its 238-layer 4D NAND Flash memory, following the development in August 2022, and that product compatibility test with a global smartphone manufacturer is underway. "SK hynix has developed solution products for smartphones and client SSDs which are used as PC storage devices, adopting the 238-layer NAND technology, and has moved into mass production in May," the company said. "Given that the company secured world-class competitiveness in price, performance and quality for both 238-layer NAND and the previous generation 176-layer NAND, we expect these products to drive earnings improvement in the second half of the year."

The 238-layer product - the smallest NAND in size - has a 34% higher manufacturing efficiency compared to the previous generation of 176-layer, resulting in a significant improvement in cost competitiveness. Besides, with a data-transfer speed of 2.4 Gb per second, a 50% increase from the previous generation, and approximately 20% increase in read and write speed, the company is confident that it will be able to deliver an improved performance to the smartphone and PC customers using this technology.

TrendForce's latest research indicates that, as production cuts to DRAM and NAND Flash have not kept pace with weakening demand, the ASP of some products is expected to decline further in 2Q23. DRAM prices are projected to fall 13~18%; NAND Flash is expected to fall between 8~13%.

TrendForce reports that the significant drop in DRAM prices was mostly attributed to high inventory levels of DDR4 and LPDDR5 as PC DRAM, server DRAM, and mobile DRAM collectively account for over 85% of DRAM consumption. Meanwhile, the market share for DDR5 remains relatively low.

Western Digital Corp. (Nasdaq: WDC) today reported fiscal third quarter 2023 financial results. "Over the last several years, our team has focused on enhancing business agility and delivering a range of innovative, industry-leading products that address the increasing data storage demands of our customers," said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO. "The groundwork we laid, combined with the actions we have taken since the beginning of this fiscal year to right-size and refocus our businesses, have enabled us to navigate a dynamic environment. I am pleased that we delivered non-GAAP gross margin at the higher end of our guidance range due to strong execution across both our HDD and Flash businesses."

The 43rd edition of the Symposium on VLSI Technology & Circuits, held annually in Kyoto Japan, is charting the way forward for the devices of the future. Held between June 11-16, 2023, this year's symposium will see structured presentations, Q&A, and discussions on some of the biggest technological developments in the logic chip world. The lead (plenary) sessions drop a major hint on the way the wind is blowing. Leadning from the front is an address by Suraya Bhattacharya, Director, System-in-Package, A*STAR, IME, on "Multi-Chiplet Heterogeneous Integration Packaging for Semiconductor System Scaling."

Companies such as AMD and Intel read the tea-leaves, that Moore's Law is buckling, and it's no longer economically feasible to build large monolithic processors at the kind of prices they commanded a decade ago. This has caused companies to ration their allocation of the latest foundry node to only the specific components of their chip design that benefit the most from the latest node, and identify components that don't benefit as much, and disintegrate them into separate dies build on older foundry nodes, which are then connected through innovative packaging technologies.

Sabrent expands its card reader range to include the new USB Type C CFast 2.0 Card Reader (CR-CF20). The Sabrent USB Type-C CFast 2.0 Card Reader (CR-CF20) makes transferring data from your CFast 2.0 memory cards quick and simple. It's now easier than ever to capture, edit, and back up your HD photos and videos. Transfer your content over a 5 Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 1) connection via USB-C at up to 460MBps. BOT and UASP modes are supported for compatibility and performance, so you can plug into various devices without worry. It works with memory cards that are compatible with a series of cameras, including the Canon EOS C500, C300 Mark II, EOS C700, the still Canon EOS 1-D X Mark II and Hasselblad H6D-100C, and more.

The integrated 15 cm (6") USB Type-C (USB-C) cable makes it easy to connect to Windows, macOS, and other devices. The card reader is plug-and-play, bus-powered, and USB backward compatible, keeping things convenient and simple. An LED indicator illuminates when you're ready to go. This device is portable but rugged, constructed with high-quality aluminium, with a professional-looking finish. This material also helps remove heat from your memory cards so they stay fast and cool. Get maximum performance and protection with quality Sabrent hardware.

Although NAND suppliers have continued to roll back production, there is still an oversupply of NAND Flash as demand for products such as servers, smartphones, and notebooks is still too weak. Therefore, TrendForce predicts that the ASP of NAND Flash will continue to fall in 2Q23, though that decline may shrink to 5~10%. The key to supply and demand returning to a market equilibrium lies in whether NAND suppliers can cut back on production even more. TrendForce believes if demand remains stable, then the ASP of NAND Flash will have an opportunity to rebound in 4Q23; if demand is weaker than expected, then ASP will take longer to recover.

Client SSD: Currently, PC OEM's have managed to liquidate most of their component inventory, and are now gearing up in preparation for mid-year sales events. Suppliers are cutting prices to clear out their inventories of PCIe Gen 3 SSDs, which are gradually being phased out. Meanwhile, prices of PCIe Gen 4 SSDs continue to face downward pressure due to a slow intake of new customer orders. The continuous decline of QLC products in 1Q23 has also dragged down the prices of TLC products, and there is relatively little room for prices to keep falling in 2Q23. While it still remains unclear whether or not demand will recover, TrendForce projects that the prices of PC client SSDs will drop 5~10% in 2Q23.

TrendForce's latest investigations reveal that the global NAND Flash market has been facing a demand headwind since 2H22. In response, the supply chain has been scrambling to clear out inventory, driving down NAND Flash contract prices by 20-25%. Enterprise SSD took the brunt of the fall with prices plummeting 23-28%. Despite manufacturers lowering prices in an attempt to drive up demand, clients are hesitant to purchase more components for fear of overstock. As a result, NAND Flash bit shipments rose by a mere 5.3% as ASP fell 22.8%. Global NAND Flash revenue was reported to be US$10.29 billion in 4Q22—down 25% QoQ.

TrendForce reports that Kioxia and Micron saw both a reduction in production and price in 4Q22. Kioxia's revenue plunged 30.5% due to weak demand from PC and smartphone clients and data centers readjusting their inventory. Micron generated a quarterly revenue of US$1.1 billion—a staggering 34.7% QoQ drop—that has led them to drastically decrease their capacity utilization rate for fabs. Luckily, Micron was able to ship their 232-layer client SSDs in 4Q22 as scheduled, and with the 176-layer QLC enterprise SSD hot on its heels, Micron's bit shipments are predicted to steadily improve in 2023 with their revenue climbing gradually quarter by quarter.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for Cloud, AI/ML, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is announcing the latest addition to its revolutionary ultra-high performance, high-density petascale class all-flash NVMe server family. Supermicro systems in this high-performance storage product family will support the next-generation EDSFF form factor, including the E3.S and E1.S devices, in form factors that accommodate 16- and 32 high-performance PCIe Gen 5 NVMe drive bays.

The initial offering of the updated product line will support up to one-half of a petabyte of storage space in a 1U 16 bay rackmount system, followed by a full petabyte of storage space in a 2U 32 bay rackmount system for both Intel and AMD PCIe Gen 5 platforms. All of the Supermicro systems that support either the E1.S or E3.s form factors enable customers to realize the benefits in various application-optimized servers.

Looking back at 2H22, as server OEMs slowed down the momentum of their product shipments, Chinese server buyers also held a conservative outlook on future demand and focused on inventory reduction. Thus, the flow of orders for enterprise SSDs remained sluggish. However, NAND Flash suppliers had to step up shipments of enterprise SSDs during 2H22 because the demand for storage components equipped in notebook (laptop) computers and smartphones had undergone very large downward corrections. Compared with other categories of NAND Flash products, enterprise SSDs represented the only significant source of bit consumption. Ultimately, due to the imbalance between supply and demand, the QoQ decline in prices of enterprise SSDs widened to 25% for 4Q22. This price plunge, in turn, caused the quarterly total revenue from enterprise SSDs to drop by 27.4% QoQ to around US$3.79 billion. TrendForce projects that the NAND Flash industry will again post a QoQ decline in the revenue from this product category for 1Q23.

Pure Storage, a maker of various storage solutions and custom enterprise-grade SSDs, claims the company will produce SSDs with up to 300 TBs of capacity by 2026. In an interview with Pure Storage CTO Alex McMullan, Blocks & Files got exclusive information that the company targets SSD capacities of up to 300 TBs in 2026. Pure Storage creates proprietary Direct Flash Modules (DFM) SSDs which use 3D NAND chips controlled by a custom SSD controller, are used in the FlashArray systems, and run on a custom FlashBlade operating system. This level of customization allows Pure Storage to create SSD drives with remarkable capacities in the future as the 3D NAND technology advances.

In the coming years, 3D NAND flash manufacturers will switch from the current 200-layer chips to the 400/500-layer chips, driving storage density to new highs. As manufacturers update their technology, so does Pure with its DFM cards that use regular U.2 NVMe connectors in a custom ruler-style format made explicitly for Pure FlashArray systems. Compared to upcoming HDDs that Toshiba and Seagate will use, Pure Storage DFM SSDs will have much higher capacities and read/write speeds, especially as higher-density 3D NAND arrives. You can see the comparison of Pure's estimates for the future 300 TB SSDs with future HDD technology.

Since 2022, DRAM suppliers have been adjusting their product mixes so as to assign more wafer input to server DRAM products while scaling back the wafer input for mobile DRAM products. This trend is driven by two reasons. First, the demand outlook is bright for the server DRAM segment. Second, the mobile DRAM segment was in significant oversupply during 2022. Moving into 2023, the projections on the growth of smartphone shipments and the increase in the average DRAM content of smartphones remain quite conservative. Therefore, DRAM suppliers intend to keep expanding the share of server DRAM in their product mixes. According to TrendForce's analysis on the distribution of the DRAM industry's total bit output for 2023, server DRAM is estimated to comprise around 37.6%, whereas mobile DRAM is estimated to comprise around 36.8%. Hence, server DRAM will formally surpass mobile DRAM in terms of the portion of the overall supply within this year.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation ("Silicon Motion"), a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices, today announced the SM2268XT, its latest high-performance PCIe Gen 4 SSD controller solution optimized for higher speed NAND transfer rates. The SM2268XT's superior performance and robust reliability allows customers to accelerate development of next-generation SSDs using current and future TLC and QLC 3D NAND flash with comprehensive data integrity and correction without compromising throughput and latency.

The SM2268XT features a dual-core ARM R8 CPU with four lanes of 16 Gb/s PCIe data flow and supports four NAND channels with up to 3,200 MT/s per channel, enabling designers to take advantage of higher throughput next-generation high-speed TLC and QLC 3D NAND flash. Its multi-core design automatically balances the compute load to deliver industry-leading sequential read and write speeds of 7,400 MB/s & 6,500 MB/s, and random read & write speed of 1,200K IOPS. In addition, its advanced architecture enables lower power consumption and rigorous data protection, providing high performance and reliability in a cost-effective DRAM-less PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD solution.

Corsair has teased its fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD yet in an M.2 form factor. The company published some initial details about its upcoming product in a short video. However, the video has been taken private, indicating that the launch date may be at a later stage of the year. Thanks to Overclock3D, we saw its looks and got a slight peek at the product. Called the MP700, the SSD is supposedly boasting a fantastic 10 GB/s read capability. The write section is also impressive, with the NVMe SSD capable of reaching around 9 GB/s of what we suppose is a sustained write speed. It uses 3D TLC NAND Flash and supports Microsoft DirectStorage technology for faster load time. Below is a quote from Corsair about the MP700.

CorsairExperience the performance of PCIe Gen5 storage in your system, with up to 10,000MB/sec sequential read and 9,500MB/sec sequential write speeds for amazingly fast save, boot, and load times.
The high-bandwidth NVMe 2.0 interface and high-density 3D TLC NAND flash memory offer outstanding performance and longevity. Slot the MP700 directly into your motherboard thanks to its M.2 2280 form-factor, while a stylish aluminum heatsink helps manage temperatures and reduce throttling. Microsoft DirectStorage enables unprecedented load times when playing compatible games.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Western Digital and Kioxia are holding new talks about a potential merger of both companies' flash production businesses. The merger appears to be quite complex, as not only does it involve Western Digital spinning off its flash production business unit, which is then said to be merged with Kioxia, into what will be a publicly traded company in the US, but there will also be a second listing in Japan for the company.

Considering that Kioxia came out of Toshiba's DRAM and NAND flash manufacturing business, in which Western Digital was a partner until Toshiba divested its business into Kioxia. This caused quite some tension between the two companies, but Western Digital and Kioxia kept producing NAND flash in the shared facilities. The report by Bloomberg suggests that a management team from Western Digital will be running the combined company, which could potentially lead to future issues between the US and Japanese sides of the company. Time will tell if a merger will actually take place or not, as the two companies failed to come to an agreement in 2021, but it's possible that something has changed since then. Back in 2021, the merger was valued at US$20 billion plus.

YMTC today at the Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2022 unveiled its X3-9070 TLC 3D NAND flash powered by Xtacking 3.0 architecture. Since its debut show at FMS 2018, YMTC's Xtacking technology has become a hallmark of the company's vision for innovation, and the approach to hybrid bonding has been widely recognized as one of the key enablers of the industry's future growth. Built out to be a common growth platform that drives value and innovation in the semiconductor ecosystem, YMTC's Xtacking 3.0 architecture opens up a world of opportunities for diversified applications in 5G, AloT, and beyond.

From 1.0 to 3.0, YMTC's Xtacking technology, a heterogeneous 3D integration architecture, has established a proven track record of success, as evidenced by a diverse portfolio of Xtacking NAND-based system solutions, including SATA III, PCIe Gen3 & Gen4 SSDs, as well as eMMC & UFS for mobile and embedded applications, garnering recognition from leading OEMs.