New 3D NAND flash will triple capacity of SSDs, Intel and Micron say

[A Guy]

Standard consumer SSDs will increase up to an astounding 10TB of storage, thanks to a new type of 3D NAND flash memory that Intel and Micron introduced Thursday morning.

The two companies, longtime joint partners in NAND flash development, said the breakthrough isn’t to make larger flash chips, but thicker ones. Much like Manhattan, when you’re out of space, the only way to go is up.

Executives at the two companies said that by stacking the NAND they can greatly increase the capacity. The new 3D NAND technology stacks flash cells vertically in 32 layers to achieve a 256Gbit multilevel cell (MLC) and 384Gbit triple-level cell (TLC) die that fit within a standard package. Both say this approach will yield greater efficiency and lower the cost too.

Source

A Guy

 

[RoasterMen]

Goodluck with the price! I'm not spending so much money. I can't even afford to buy a 256GB SSD.

 

[Layback Bear]

Two companies that have a very good reputation going together on this project is a good thing in my opinion.

Like SSD's the price will start off high and work it's way down when volume sales go up.

In my opinion many corporations will be interested. They will be able to store their data internally and retrieve it quickly without the use of the internet rather than using a Cloud which requires the access to the internet.
I'm thinking because data is stored in house it should be safer.

I'm quite sure that I don't have the need or money for such a nice thing.
It's nice to see companies looking forward with new technology.

Thanks Bill for finding this neat stuff and posting.

 

[vrosa]

Excellent news ! As the new technologie becomes avaiable standard SSDs prices will probably drop, making them acessible to more people. I moved to SSDs a few years ago and can't imagine my life today without them.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm surprised someone hasn't come up with SSDs in a 3.5" form factor. With the present NAND technology, they would need only to design a controller that can handle that much capacity. They could easily cram 6-10TB into a 3.5" HDD housing.

Before huge capacity SSDs can replace HDDs for mass storage, especially static storage, more work needs to be done on improving data retention. Currently, SSDs slowly leak off the charge that's used to store memory. The rate of leakage increases as the number of writes remaining on a NAND decreases. Right now, one can put data on a HDD and stick ir on the shelf for far longer than one can with an SSD without having to refresh the contents (which, ironically, runs up the write count, which reduces data retention time).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Excellent news ! As the new technologie becomes avaiable standard SSDs prices will probably drop, making them acessible to more people. I moved to SSDs a few years ago and can't imagine my life today without them.

I agree. While I still use HDDs for mass data storage (and will for some time to come), I will not own a machine that doesn't at least have a SSD for a boot drive.

 

[carwiz]

10TB drives have been available for years. What's new is the "stacking" of the memory die. What I'm wondering is will the new drives require active cooling? Compressing the memory into a smaller footprint only means more heat.

 

[Layback Bear]

As the article stated.

Much like Manhattan, when you’re out of space, the only way to go is up.

So they stacked. I do agree with you carwiz better cooling will probable be needed. Probably no more cooling than hard drives. So when replacing hard drives with this new SSD's the cooling should already be in place.