SK Hynix has announced what the company claims is the world's first 128-layer 1-terabit triple-level cell (1Tb TLC) 4D NAND flash memory, with mass production kicking off.

SK Hynix indicated its 128-layer 1Tb NAND chip offers the industry's highest vertical stacking with more than 360 billion NAND cells, each of which stores three bits, per chip.

A number of companies have developed 1Tb quad-level cell (QLC) NAND products, but SK Hynix claimed it is the first to commercialize 1Tb TLC NAND flash. TLC accounts for more than 85% of the NAND flash market.

SK Hynix will start shipping 128-layer 4D NAND flash in the second half of 2019, according to the company.

SK Hynix also disclosed plans to develop the next-generation UFS 3.1 product in the first half of 2020 for major flagship smartphone customers. With 128-layer 1Tb NAND flash, the number of NAND chips necessary for a 1TB (Terabyte) product, currently the largest capacity for a smartphone, will be reduced by half, compared to 512Gb NAND; it will provide customers with a mobile solution with 20% less power consumption in a 1mm-thin package.

In addition, SK Hynix intends to enter mass production of 2TB client SSDs with in-house developed controller and software in the first half of 2020, the company said. It added 16TB and 32TB NVMe SSDs for cloud data centers will also be released next year.

SK Hynix said it is developing the next-generation 176-layer 4D NAND flash.

By: DocMemory
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