Tuesday, September 26th 2017
Intel's First 10 nm Chips to the Market are 64-layer 3D NAND
Non-volatile memory often has the first pick of a new silicon fabrication process, as it is a low-risk development. A NAND flash chip is essentially a sea of transistors, with a fraction of R&D cost of something as specialized as a CPU die. It should come as no surprise, then, that the first chips to be built on Intel's swanky new 10 nanometer fabs will be a 64-layer 3D NAND flash memory, the first of its kind for data center applications.
With its 10 nm process, Intel is introducing FinFET Hyper Scaling, Intel will increase transistor densities by 2.7 times over the kind of densities one would traditionally expect from 10 nm. This lets the company scale up NAND flash storage densities by just that much more. The first 10 nm 64-layer 3D NAND flash chips will have high data densities, while at the same time, Intel will be able to push low volumes, characteristic of a new process. This explains why the first SSDs built with these chips are targeted at data-centers, so fairly expensive, high-capacity SSDs can be pushed to customers that can afford them.
Source:
StorageReview
With its 10 nm process, Intel is introducing FinFET Hyper Scaling, Intel will increase transistor densities by 2.7 times over the kind of densities one would traditionally expect from 10 nm. This lets the company scale up NAND flash storage densities by just that much more. The first 10 nm 64-layer 3D NAND flash chips will have high data densities, while at the same time, Intel will be able to push low volumes, characteristic of a new process. This explains why the first SSDs built with these chips are targeted at data-centers, so fairly expensive, high-capacity SSDs can be pushed to customers that can afford them.
12 Comments on Intel's First 10 nm Chips to the Market are 64-layer 3D NAND
I would personally buy samsung before Intel as Samsung have proven time and time again that it's SSDs are the best performance and endurance wise. Intel offers middle of the road products at much too high prices. Pretty much Intel's calling card.
I guess in a decade or so, we'll see Intel, Samsung and a few others receive "huge" (but economically insignificant) fines from the EU or the FTC for this whole mess. In the meantime, users and consumers are stuck with the bill, lining the pockets of callous investors.
More to the point of the article: I thought one of the key advantages of 3D NAND was the ability to produce higher densities at larger nodes, and expanding capacity by added layers rather than shrinking litography. Have they adjusted the NAND design to be more innately 3D, and thus hold more electrons even when manufactured on smaller process nodes? Or are we once again nearing the "TLC needs eight voltage states, and our NAND cells only fit roughly that many electrons" limit?
Oh, and then of course there is profit. Nom nom.
Of course, all that didn't matter anyways, cause by 2014 Intel had the P3700 out ruling the roost with it's NVMe-ness up until the Samsung 960 twins came along in 2016.
Then again, Optane once again took the crown a bit later in 2017 (originally planned for a 2016 release), though this time it's firmly "blood of the firstborn" pricing, rather than just expensive :(
Looking at that history, Samsung looks to be about 2 years behind what Intel can do, and that Intel doesn't really care much for iterative chart-topping, preferring instead of release much, much more impactful performance increases. Prices be damned.
PS: if you ask around the datacenter peeps, you'll hear a common theme of Intel not always being the absolute best choice, but always being a very good choice, especially when it comes to firmware niggles. This sort of consistency is hard to get, and Intel has it, while Samsung hasn't quite reached there.
EDIT: Also, there is a non-zero value for other stuff like support and firmware quality, that those of us buying Intel value and pay for.