Toshiba Memory Europe introduced highest performing NAND
Based on Toshiba Memory Europe’s BiCS Flash 3D flash memory technology with 1bit-per-cell single level cell (SLC), XL-Flash is designed for data centre and enterprise storage. It is characterised by low latency and high performance, says the company.
XL-Flash is classified as storage class memory (SCM), or persistent memory. Like NAND Flash, it has the ability to retain its contents and bridges the performance gap that exists between DRAM and NAND, explains Toshiba Memory Europe. Volatile memories, such as DRAM provide the access speed needed by demanding applications, but performance comes at a high cost. As the cost-per-bit and scalability of DRAM levels off, this new SCM layer in the memory hierarchy addresses that issue with a high density, cost effective, non-volatile NAND flash memory. Industry analyst firm, IDC, estimates the SCM market will reach in excess of $3B in 2022.
Positioned between DRAM and NAND flash, XL-Flash brings increased speed, reduced latency and higher storage capacities at a lower cost than traditional DRAM, explains Toshiba Memory Europe. XL-Flash will initially be deployed in a solid state device (SSD) format but could be expanded to memory channel attached devices that sit on the DRAM bus, such as future industry standard non-volatile dual in-line memory modules (NVDIMMs).
XL-Flash offers 128Gbit die, in a two-, four- or eight-die package. A 4kbyte page size for more efficient operating system reads and writes, while the 16-plane architecture is designed for more efficient parallelism. The fast page read and program times means that XL-Flash provides a low read latency of less than five microseconds, approximately 10 times faster than existing tri-level cell (TLC).
As the inventor of NAND flash, as well as being the first company to announce 3D flash memory technology and a leader in process migrations, Toshiba Memory is ideally positioned to deliver SLC-based SCM with mature manufacturing, proven scalability and time-tested SLC reliability.
Sample shipments will begin in September 2019, with mass production expected to begin in 2020.
Toshiba Memory Europe is the European business of Toshiba Memory. The company offers flash memory products, including SD cards, USB flash drives, and embedded memory components, in addition to solid state drives (SSD).
