If you've been putting off purchasing that shiny new SSD, you might want to consider doing it before the end of the year, especially if you've been eyeing a model from Samsung, as the company will reportedly be increasing the pricing of its NAND flash starting now. NAND flash might have hit rock bottom, with all major manufacturers except possibly YMTC having cut production to try to push up pricing, but so far, nothing appears to have worked. Despite this, reports coming out of Taiwan's UDN News via TrendForce are suggesting that Samsung is getting ready to hike the price of its NAND flash products by 20 percent per quarter until the middle of 2024.

Admittedly this only gives Samsung about two and a half quarters to increase the pricing, but that's potentially three increases of 20 percent per increase. Samsung has reportedly already increased its NAND wafer prices by 10 to 20 percent this quarter, which according to TrendForce has had a knock on effect on enterprise SSD pricing, which has increased by five to 10 percent already. TrendForce is forecasting a consumer SSD price increase of eight to 13 percent before the end of the year, which might not seem like much, but if the pricing increases for another couple of quarters, we could be looking at 30 to 40 percent more expensive SSDs in the not too distant future. As such, it's going to be worth keeping an eye on SSD pricing, as it's likely that Samsung's competitors will follow suit and increase their NAND pricing as well, which will affect the broader market.

Samsung Electronics today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. Total consolidated revenue was KRW 67.40 trillion, a 12% increase from the previous quarter, mainly due to new smartphone releases and higher sales of premium display products. Operating profit rose sequentially to KRW 2.43 trillion based on strong sales of flagship models in mobile and strong demand for displays, as losses at the Device Solutions (DS) Division narrowed.

The Memory Business reduced losses sequentially as sales of high valued-added products and average selling prices somewhat increased. Earnings in system semiconductors were impacted by a delay in demand recovery for major applications, but the Foundry Business posted a new quarterly high for new backlog from design wins. The mobile panel business reported a significant increase in earnings on the back of new flagship model releases by major customers, while the large panel business narrowed losses in the quarter. The Device eXperience (DX) Division achieved solid results due to robust sales of premium smartphones and TVs. Revenue at the Networks Business declined in major overseas markets as mobile operators scaled back investments.

According to sources close to Nikkei, the merger discussions between Western Digital and Kioxia has been terminated. Western Digital notified Kioxia about scrapping the possible transaction, citing the failure to obtain approval from SK Hynix, a significant shareholder of Kioxia, and disagreements over merger terms with Bain Capital, Kioxia's main shareholder. Western Digital and Kioxia, holding the fourth and second positions in the global NAND flash memory market, respectively, planned to join their NAND operations under one roof to create the world's largest maker of NAND memory and potentially enhance their competitive standing and profitability.

The merger was seen as a strategic move to rival Samsung's market dominance by leveraging the companies' combined resources and capabilities, and the plan was to happen as soon as the end of this month. However, the merger faced substantial opposition from SK Hynix, the world's third-largest NAND supplier with a 17.8% market share. Having invested more than $2.6 billion in a consortium led by Bain Capital that previously acquired Kioxia in 2018, SK Hynix expressed concerns that the proposed merger would adversely impact its market position and future collaboration opportunities with Kioxia. This opposition proved to be a pivotal obstacle, preventing the realization of the merger.

SK hynix Inc., today reported the financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. The company recorded revenues of 9.066 trillion won, operating losses of 1.792 trillion won and net losses of 2.185 trillion won in the three-month period. The operating and net margins were a negative 20% and 24%, respectively. After bottoming out in the first quarter, the business has been on a steady recovery track, helped by growing demand for products such as high-performance memory chips, the company said.

"Revenues grew 24%, while operating losses narrowed 38%, compared with the previous quarter, thanks to strong demand for high-performance mobile flagship products and HBM3, a key product for AI applications, and high-capacity DDR5," the company said, adding that a turnaround of the DRAM business following two quarters of losses is particularly hopeful. SK hynix attributed the growth in sales to increased shipments of both DRAM and NAND and a rise in the average selling price.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced memory technology, today held its annual Memory Tech Day, showcasing industry-first innovations and new memory products to accelerate technological advancements across future applications—including the cloud, edge devices and automotive vehicles.

Attended by about 600 customers, partners and industry experts, the event served as a platform for Samsung executives to expand on the company's vision for "Memory Reimagined," covering long-term plans to continue its memory technology leadership, outlook on market trends and sustainability goals. The company also presented new product innovations such as the HBM3E Shinebolt, LPDDR5X CAMM2 and Detachable AutoSSD.

Jung-Bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business of Samsung Electronics, the world's largest NAND memory supplier, has noted in the blog post that Samsung plans to develop its 9th Generation V-NAND memory with over 300 layers, aiming for mass production in 2024. Samsung's V-NAND uses a double-stack structure and is expected to have more active layers than its competitors' 3D NAND memory, such as SK Hynix's forthcoming 321-layer memory. The increase in layers allows Samsung to enhance storage density and performance in its future 3D NAND devices, focusing on input/output (I/O) speed. While the specific performance details of Samsung's 9th Generation V-NAND remain undisclosed, the memory is expected to be used in next-generation PCIe SSDs with the PCIe 5.0 standard.

Jung-Bae Lee has noted: "New structural and material innovations will be critical in the upcoming era of sub-10-nanometer (nm) DRAM and 1,000-layer vertical V-NAND. As such, we are developing 3D stacked structures and new materials for DRAM while increasing layer count, decreasing height, and minimizing cell interference for V-NAND." The 9th installment of V-NAND, scheduled for 2024, is utilizing 11 nm-class DRAM. Additionally, the blog post reassures the commitment to CXL Memory Modules (CMM), which will enable the composable infrastructure of next-generation systems, especially with high-capacity SSDs powered by V-NAND.

The drawn out merger talks between Kioxia and Western Digital's memory and NAND flash manufacturing businesses appears to have hit an unexpected bump on the road, in the shape of SK Hynix according to the Nikkei. As it happens, SK Hynix holds an indirect stake in Kioxia and as such, they need to approve the merger for it to be able to happen. Today, SK Hynix is the second biggest manufacturer of NAND flash, somewhat behind Samsung, but if the Kioxia WD merger were to take place, SK Hynix would be pushed into a third place in the market, which wouldn't benefit the company.

As such, SK Hynix is trying to push for a rather odd option for Kioxia, where SK Hynix wants Japanese SoftBank—who owns among other things, Arm—to step in as a partner with Kioxia. However, what SK Hynix seems to have forgotten is that WD's memory chips are made in the same fab as Kioxia's and it's highly unlikely that WD would be keen on seeing this last minute proposal by SK Hynix play out. The Kioxia WD merger would result in a new company where Kioxia would own 63 percent and WD 37 percent, based on current assets. However, WD is meant to add further capital to the merger, so it can get a 50.1 percent stake in the final company for its shareholders, with Kioxia ending up with 49.9 percent.

Swissbit, a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade flash memory solutions, today announced the release of its new product line of SATA SSDs. The series X-73, X-75 and X-78 are powered by cutting-edge industrial 112-layer 3D NAND technology, bringing unprecedented reliability and extended lifespan to the world's most crucial networks. The latest portfolio is built with Swissbit's dedication to quality and innovation. The new portfolio not only offers reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) thanks to its extended product life cycle, but also comes with powersafe SSDs - Swissbit's industry-leading power loss protection feature.

The expanded SSD product line includes M.2 2242, M.2 2280, Slim SATA MO-297, and 2.5" form factors, and offers a wide capacity range from 40 GB up to 1.92 TB. With an industry-leading 100k P/E cycles, the high endurance versions in pSLC mode are aimed at addressing the increasing market demand for durable and reliable data storage solutions.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the Micron 7500 NVMe SSD for data center workloads. The 7500 SSD is the world's only mainstream data center SSD to feature 200+ layer NAND, utilizing Micron's 232-layer NAND and enabling up to 242% better random write performance than competitive drives. The SSD also delivers sub-1 millisecond (1 ms) latency for 6x9s quality-of-service (QoS) in mainstream drives, creating a new, industry-leading class of SSDs perfectly suited to deliver the consistency required in the cloud. The Micron 7500 SSD is designed to meet the demands of storage-intensive data center workloads, such as artificial intelligence (AI), databases, content delivery, real-time analytics, social media platforms, cloud computing and virtualization. Its remarkable QoS and performance provide rapid, reliable responsiveness for these demanding workloads. For example, the drive improves RocksDB performance by up to 2.1 times versus competitive SSDs.

"The Micron 7500 SSD is a game-changer for data center workloads, delivering blazing-fast performance, exceptional QoS reliability and advanced security unmatched by any other SSD in its class," said Alvaro Toledo, vice president and general manager of Micron's Data Center Storage group. "Thanks to Micron's industry-leading 232-layer NAND technology, we have achieved a breakthrough in latency, enabling response times below 1 ms for 6x9s QoS in mainstream drives. This means our customers can run their data-intensive workloads faster, more efficiently and with more predictability than ever before."

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, today marked a historic day with the opening of its new cutting-edge assembly and test facility in Batu Kawan, Penang, alongside the celebration of Micron's 45th anniversary. A ceremony officiated by Chief Minister of Penang, Yang Amat Berhormat Tuan Chow Kon Yeow, underscored the regional significance of Micron's expansion, highlighting the company's four and a half decades of innovation and excellence.

Micron previously invested $1 billion and will add up to another billion including construction and full equipping of this new facility over the next few years in Penang to increase factory space to a total of 1.5 million square feet. This expansion enables Micron Malaysia to boost production output and further strengthen its assembly and test capabilities, allowing it to supply leading-edge NAND, PCDRAM and SSD modules to meet the growing demand for transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous or electric vehicles.

Hardware cybersecurity pioneer and industrial NAND storage specialist, Flexxon, today announced the launch of its latest security product, Xsign. Now available globally, the Xsign provides enhanced security through an innovative approach to unlocking sensitive data reserved only for authorized personnel.

With the use of the Xsign hardware security key, organisations will be provided with a tailored software platform that syncs only with the Xsign key, thereby granting access to pre-defined users. Beyond its function as a security key, the Xsign also operates as a traditional storage card, equipped with Flexxon's industry leading reliability and performance. Key beneficiaries of the solution include industries that handle personal and sensitive data like the healthcare, finance, and government and defense sectors.

Silicon Power (SP) is thrilled to announce its inaugural participation at the renowned Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) from October 6-8. Together with Mwave and Umart, the company's distributors in Australia, SP will offer exclusive promotions to gaming enthusiasts. The company will also showcase its cutting-edge gaming solutions, including the debut of its groundbreaking product, the XPOWER XS80 PCIe Gen 5 SSD. Taking place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), PAX provides the perfect backdrop for SP to unveil its latest innovation, further solidifying the brand's commitment to delivering high-performance storage solutions for gamers.

Game-Changing Gen 5 Performance with the XS80
The XS80 offers exceptional gaming performance with the latest PCIe Gen 5 technology, NVMe 2.0 support, and 232-layer 3D NAND flash, delivering twice the data transfer rate of Gen 4 and four times that of Gen 3.

During the China Chip Storage Future 2023 Storage Industry Trend Summit, Yingren Technology, widely recognized as InnoGrit outside of China, announced the initiation of mass production of its enterprise-level YR S900 PCIe 5.0 SSD controller. Marking a significant breakthrough, the YR S900 stands as China's first domestic PCIe 5.0 SSD controller. Operating on an open-source RISC-V architecture, the YR S900 is engineered to align with U.S. export restrictions, ensuring a seamless design and manufacturing process of the SSD controller. While Yingren Technology remains discreet about the specific process node to produce the YR S900, it's known that the controller embodies a versatile design, with compatibility extending to mainstream NAND from eminent manufacturers, and exhibits an impressive synergy with NAND from Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC).

The YR S900 is a quad-channel controller, offering sequential read and write speeds peaking at 14 GB/s and 12 GB/s, respectively, and is equipped with InnoGrit's third-generation ECC engine to optimize 4K LDPC encoding and decoding. This collaboration with Kioxia's XL-Flash results in a low 4K random read latency of 10us, highlighting its potential to deliver higher data throughput, increased stability, and extended service life. The YR S900 encompasses a comprehensive feature set, including FDP, SR-IOV hardware virtualization, CMB, and a range of data encryption algorithms. While the mass production of the YR S900 underscores a monumental stride in SSD solutions within China, it remains to be seen whether adopting this new Chinese technology will enter markets beyond China.

Solidigm today announced the D7-5810, an enterprise SSD for extremely intensity write workloads. Such a drive would be capable of write endurance in the neighborhood of 50 DWPD. For reference, the company's D7-P5620, a write-centric/mixed workload drive for data-logging, and AI ingest/preparation, offers around 3 DWPD of endurance, depending on the variant; and the read-intensive drive meant for CDNs, the D5-P5336, offers around 0.5 DWPD. Use cases for the new D7-P5810 include high performance caching for flash arrays dealing with "cooler" data; high-frequency trading, and HPC.

Solidigm D7-P5810 uses SK hynix 144-layer 3D NAND flash that's made to operate in a pure SLC configuration. The drive comes in 800 GB and 1.6 TB capacities, and offers 50 DWPD over an endurance period of 5 years (4K random writes). More specifically, both models offer 73 PBW (petabytes written) of endurance. The drive comes in enterprise-relevant 15 mm-thick U.2 form-factor, with PCIe Gen 4 x4 interface, with NVMe 1.3c and NVMe MI 1.1 protocols.

This past weekend, Micron broke ground on what will be a new semiconductor assembly plant in Gujarat, India. The new facility is said to cover almost 0.4 square kilometres of land or 93 acres, on which phase one will include a 46.5 thousand square metre clean room. The first phase of the project is said to be built by Tata Projects and it's expected to start operating as early as the end of 2024, which seems somewhat optimistic considering how long it can take to build clean rooms of this size in other countries that have much more experience in building such facilities.

Micron is said to be investing a total of US$2.7 billion at the facility, although phase one has a budget of US$825 million as a first step. The full project is said to take five years to complete and is expected to bring some 5,000 direct jobs at the Micron plant. The plant will be a first-of-its-kind in India and Micron will be using it to assemble DRAM and NAND flash. Some of the investment is coming from the Indian government, but the reports don't mention how big of a share the government has contributed.

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.

In response to persistent softening in demand, Samsung has taken a decisive step: a sweeping 50% production cut from September, with the focus mainly on processes under 128 layers. According to TrendForce's research, other suppliers are also expected to follow suit and increase their production cutbacks in the fourth quarter to accelerate inventory reduction. With this maneuver in play, Q4 NAND Flash average prices are projected to either hold firm or witness a mild surge, possibly in the ballpark of 0~5%.

Aligning with TrendForce's early-year forecasts, NAND Flash prices are poised to rally ahead of DRAM. With mounting losses for NAND Flash vendors and sales prices nearing production costs, suppliers are opting to amplify production cuts to help stabilize and potentially increase prices. Notably, NAND Flash Wafer contract prices kickstarted their revival in August. Given expanding production curtailments, there's optimism around the resurgence of customer stockpiling, further amplifying price dynamics in September. Yet, for this positive price trajectory to sail smoothly into 2024, a sustained curtailing in production and a robust rebound in enterprise SSD purchase orders are pivotal.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced the release of a new 4-terabyte (TB) offering in its SSD 990 PRO series. The 990 PRO series is a lineup of high-performance PCIe 4.0 SSDs powered by Samsung's eighth-generation V-NAND (V8) technology and enhanced proprietary controller. Offering blazing-fast speeds and ultimate power efficiency, the 990 PRO series is optimized for massive data volumes, such as 3D/4K graphics work, data analytics and high-quality games, making it the ideal SSD for today's PCs, laptops, game consoles and computing systems. With improved total bytes written (TBW) ratings of up to 2,400 TB, the 990 PRO series ensures increased SSD reliability and longevity, ideal for those with highly demanding workloads and large storage capacity needs.

"Today's gamers and creative professionals require high-capacity, high-performance SSDs and Samsung's new 4 TB SSD 990 PRO is the perfect storage solution to meet their needs," said Hangu Sohn, Corporate Vice President of the Memory Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics. "As the demand for high-resolution content and ultra-fast data-processing speeds continues to grow, high-performance NVMe storage has become a core requirement."

KLEVV, an emerging memory brand introduced by Essencore today, is excited to unveil its latest M.2 Solid State Drive, the CRAS C910 Lite, packed with advanced specs for unparalleled performance. As a new addition to KLEVV's M.2 SSD lineup, the all-new CRAS C910 Lite utilizes PCI Express Gen 4 x4 interface supported by NVMe 1.4, ensuring lightning-fast data transfer rates excellent for competitive gaming and content creation.

Available in multiple storage capacities, including 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB, the CRAS C910 Lite features strictly-selected 3D NAND Flash components, enabling impressive sequential read/write speeds of up to 5000/4200 MB/s and 4K Random Read/Write IOPS of up to 680,000/880,000.
A feather-light weight of a mere 7gram thanks to its revolutionary ultra-thin, single-sided SSD architecture based on the M.2 2280, the CRAS C910 Lite redefines compact performance, making it a perfect fit for a wide array of devices from nimble mini-PCs to sleek laptops.

Leading industrial storage and memory provider, Cervoz Technology, introduces the T436 Family: state-of-the-art Industrial PCIe NVMe Gen3x4 SSDs. Compatible with the PCIe Gen3x4 interface, NVMe protocol, and M.2 2280 form factor, the series is a perfect fit for both booting and storage in PCs and motherboards. What sets the T436 SSDs apart is Cervoz's proprietary Power Loss Protection technology. In an era dominated by rapid IoT and AI advancements, our dependency on data is paramount. With global energy fluctuations driven by soaring computing needs, there's more than just a call for swifter data management. It's crucial to protect our data from potential power inconsistencies.

Guarding Data Against Power Instability
The standout feature of the T436 is its advanced PLP (Power Loss Protection) technology. Power disruptions have long been a challenge for SSDs, making valuable data vulnerable to corruption or loss, threatening both data integrity and operational continuity. The T436 SSDs integrate the Powerguard technology to combat these challenges. Upon an unexpected power dip, Powerguard activates instantly, drawing additional power from tantalum capacitors, ensuring that any data within the DRAM buffer is written back to the NAND Flash. Typically, average SSDs require around 40 ms of backup power discharge to complete the data write-in task, influenced by the data's complexity or size. With Cervoz's Powerguard, the buffer time from a power dip to potential failure extends impressively to 88 ms, ensuring that all data has ample time to be written fully.

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.

CompactFlash Association (CFA), the organization responsible for professional removable media specifications such as CompactFlash, CFAST, XQD, and CFexpress announces the release of the CFexpress 4.0 logical and physical specifications increasing the performance of the existing CFexpress 2.0 specifications while maintaining backward compatibility targeting the professional imaging and industrial markets requiring high-performance data capture and transfer.

CFexpress 4.0 is an evolutionary specification riding on the great success of CFexpress 2.0 employing the industry standard PCI Express (PCIe) Gen 4 bus and NVM Express (NVMe) 1.4c logical interface for even higher performance and efficient NAND Flash access. With its three form factors, CFexpress 4.0 continues to support diverse performance levels to match various market requirements maintaining consistent electrical, logical, and physical interfaces while setting realistic power consumption targets for wider adoption of the CFexpress 4.0 for battery-powered applications in the imaging and industrial markets. Utilizing widely adopted open standards allow the use of established development platforms saving development time, cost, and effort.

It appears that Samsung is getting ready to beat SK Hynix in the race to 300 plus layers of NAND Flash, at least according to reports coming out of South Korea. The Seoul Economic Daily claims in an exclusive that Samsung will have a 300 plus layer V-NAND—(V for Vertical or 3D NAND—chip ready for production in 2024 and could as such beat SK Hynix by as much as a year, depending on how soon Samsung can deliver. Currently Samsung's most cutting edge stacked NAND is a 236-layer product, which is four more layers than Micron and YMTC, but two less than SK Hynix.

What sticks out in the Seoul Economic Daily news piece is that unlike SK Hynix, which is going for a triple stack sandwich, Samsung will apparently stick with two stacks. This means that Samsung is aiming for over 150-layers of NAND per stack, which seems like a big risk to take when it comes to yields. The taller the stacks, the bigger the chance of a failed stack, but maybe Samsung has found a solution around this potential issue. As modern 3D NAND relies on Through Silicon Vias, it's easier to manufacture denser stacks than in the past when wire bonding was used, but even so, this seems like a big risk for Samsung to take. That said, considering the current low demand and news of further cutbacks in production, it might be a good time for Samsung to utilise its fabs to test out this new, more densely stacked NAND to see if the company can mass produce it without issues. Samsung's roadmap calls for a 1000 plus layer V-NAND product by 2030, but it seems like the road there is still long and complicated.

Courtesy of an SK Hynix keynote speech at the Flash Memory Summit, we now have a few more details about its upcoming 321-layer NAND Flash. PC Watch Japan who attended the industry event shared some pictures from the keynote which adds some crucial details that were missing from last week's press release. SK Hynix's officially shared performance figures tell us that we should expect up to 12 percent faster program performance, which should be the write performance and up to 13 percent improved read latency. Both of these performance metrics will obviously depend on the SSD controller the NAND is paired with, the related firmware on said controller and so forth.

PC Watch Japan also quotes a program throughput of 194 MB/s, which is 26 MB/s improvement over SK Hynix 176-layer NAND and currently the highest known program throughput of any announced NAND Flash. That said, Kioxia is expecting to hit 205 MB/s with its next generation of 300 layer NAND. SK Hynix also claims 10 percent better read power efficiency, which is really neither here nor there when it comes to modern SSDs, unless we're talking server level SSDs with a dozen of these NAND chips or more. Rather than going with two stacks of 150 plus layers each, SK Hynix went with three times 107 layer stacks, which should be compared to their current 238 layer product which has two stacks of 119 layers. This made the new NAND package easier to produce and should in the long term result in higher yields. Each NAND package is expected to deliver a memory density of 20 Gbit per square millimetre or more, which is almost twice that of its 176-layer NAND.