Kioxia and Western Digital clearly The jointly developed 8th generation BiCS 3D NAND memory device features 218 active layers. This new IC boasts a record-breaking 3200 MT/s interface speed, allowing developers to build high performance storage his subsystems (such as the industry’s fastest client SSD) using fewer 3D NAND chips. To achieve 3200 MT/s I/O, both companies took a page from his YMTC’s Xtacking book.
The first 8th generation BiCS 3D TLC NAND devices announced this week feature 1Tb (128GB) capacity, a 4-plane architecture that maximizes internal parallelism and performance, and interface speeds of 3200 MT/s (peak sequential read /write). 400 MB/s speed). Kioxia and Western Digital are the first 3D NAND makers in the world to unveil their 3200 MT/s I/O flash memory IC, leading their competitors by 33%.
But while building the world’s fastest 3D NAND memory device is an accomplishment in itself, it’s interesting how the two companies achieved this. Kioxia and Western Digital’s 8th generation BiCS 3D NAND memory features an innovative architecture called CBA (CMOS direct Bonded to Array), similar to his Xtacking recognized by YMTC.
3D NAND cell arrays are typically placed next to or above peripheral circuits such as page buffers, sense amplifiers, charge pumps, and I/O. On the other hand, from the perspective of semiconductor manufacturing, it is not necessarily efficient to manufacture memory and peripheral logic using the same manufacturing technology. CBA and Xtacking architectures use optimal production nodes to produce 3D NAND cell arrays and I/O CMOS on separate wafers to maximize memory array bit density and I/O performance.
In addition to having the fastest I/O in the industry, Kioxia and Western Digital claim their latest 3D NAND ICs boast the highest bit densities in the industry, but we won’t elaborate on the bit densities we’re seeing. No. On the other hand, the introduced 8th generation BiCS 3D TLC NAND can work in both 3D TLC mode and 3D QLC mode, so it can be used not only for high-performance/high-capacity premium client and enterprise SSDs, but also for cheap and high-speed It’s worth noting that it might also work with hard drives. Client PC or high density data center grade storage applications.
Kioxia said it has started sampling its 8th generation BiCS 3D NAND memory devices with a small number of selected customers. However, the company has not provided any information regarding the timeline for mass production of its latest flash memory. It takes a long time for the maker of flash memory and his SSD controller to combine the former with the latter, so NAND makers usually roll out new types of memory long before mass production starts. That said, I’m just guessing here, but we do expect Gen 8 of his BiCS 3D NAND to hit the market in 2024.
Kioxia Chief Technology Officer Masaki Momotomi said: “We are pleased to start shipping samples of KIOXIA for a limited number of customers. By applying CBA technology and scaling innovations, we are able to use it in various data-centric applications such as smartphones, IoT devices and data. We have evolved our 3D Flash memory technology portfolio for the Center.”
