Samsung's TLC 3D NAND to bring down prices of SSDs - mass production started

Samsung reports it has started mass production of 3D TLC V-NAND flash memory which should bring down prices of SSDs. SSD prices are expected to going down because Samsung is using 3 bits per memory cell instead of 2 bits used in the previous generation V-NAND flash memory.

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With this second generation V-NAND Samsung combines it's 3D NAND technology with its TLC memory technology. Samsung also stacks 32 layers instead of 24 per chip resulting in 128 Gigabit or 16 GB per chip.

The first consumer SSDs with 3D NAND became available last summer, in the Samsung 850 Pro series SSDs. The use of 3 bit-per-cell, 32-layer vertically stacked cell arrays sharply raises the efficiency of memory production. Compared to Samsung's 19 nm 3-bit planar NAND flash, the new 3-bit V-NAND has more than doubled wafer productivity. By using large memory cell sizes also durability of the memory is increased.

The first TLC SSDs Samsung released were the Samsung 840 series SSDs that were released in 2012. The biggest advantage of the release of these new chips is the decrease in costs for Samsung, the manufacturer is able to get more dies from each wafer. The switch to TLC 3D V-NAND therefore can result in cheaper SSDs.

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With the addition of a whole new line of high density SSDs that is both performance- and value-driven, we believe the 3-bit V-NAND will accelerate the transition of data storage devices from to SSDs," said Jaesoo Han, Senior Vice President, Memory Sales & Marketing, Samsung Electronics.

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