Micron introduced a new NAND flash technology that could boost endurance six-fold, aiming at providing a service for enterprises, not home consumers.
The new Micron NAND flash is said to be the highest capacity multi-level cell (MLC) and single-level (SLC) flash memory. Furthermore, Micron's NAND is supposed to be the highest endurance, which is important for companies looking to avoid hardware downtime.
SLC has been more expensive than MLC, but Micron has been able to increase speed across the board. Micron's new multi-level cell is said to record 30,000 write cycles, which is currently six times the standard MLC NAND. Its SLC NAND is able to reach 300,000 write cycles.
There also has been concern if MLC NAND has the consistency to be used for enterprise storage applications, though Micron's new 34-nm manufacturing process helps increase long-term durability.
Micron is quick to point out that this NAND flash advancement isn't a direct SSD product announcement. These new NAND chips could be placed directly on a motherboard, and the company is working with manufacturers interested in working with the technology.
"This isn't a solid state disk drive announcement," a Micron spokesperson told ComputerWorld. "Right now we're working with equipment manufacturers to design products around this."
Since advanced NAND flash is necessary for further SSD use in the enterprise, Micron's technology could be absolutely vital.
SSDs are seen as the storage of the future, but the technology still faces issues related to cost and write speeds. Analysts fully expect to see the popularity of SSDs explode as prices begin to slowly decline, allowing both consumers and businesses to utilize the increased speeds and other benefits.
