Samsung aims to stay on top of memory chip market

Tech giant Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it has successfully mass-produced a 256Gb vertical NAND flash memory for the first time in the world.

The new vertical NAND, or V-NAND, flash chip stacks 48 layers of memory cells and is used for solid state drives, an advanced storage system for laptops and data servers.

“With the introduction of our third generation V-NAND flash memory to the global market, we can now provide the best advanced memory solutions with even higher efficiency based on improved performance, power utilization and manufacturing productivity, thereby accelerating the growth of the high-performance and high-density SSD markets,” Jun Young-hyun, president of Samsung’s memory business, said.

Pinning high hopes on the new memory chip, he added, “We will expand our premium-level business in the enterprise and data center market segments, as well as in the consumer market, while continuing to strengthen our strategic SSD focus.”

Samsung, currently the lone manufacturer of V-NAND flash memories in the global market, rolled out its first V-NAND chip with 24 layers of cells in 2013, and the 32-layer 128Gb V-NAND last year.

The third-generation flash memory that doubles the density of conventional 128Gb V-NAND flash chips will efficiently increase the capacity of Samsung’s existing SSD lineups, according to an official from the company.

Using the 3-bit multi-level-cell technology, which stores 3 bits of data per cell, Samsung was able to make the new V-NAND flash chip 30 percent more power efficient than the a 128Gb V-NAND chip.

Samsung has supplied SSDs equipped with the V-NAND flash memory made of the 128Gb V-NAND chips, to global IT firms and data center operators.

Having released a 2 terabyte SSD last month, Samsung has also been making efforts to expand the market for multi-terabyte SSDs.

The company is making all-out efforts to solidify its lead in the memory chip market in the face of challenges posed by global chip makers, including Toshiba, SanDisk, Micro and Intel.

Joining hands with SanDisk, Toshiba announced that it had developed the world’s first 256Gb, 48-layer NAND flash memory earlier this month, an apparent move to get ahead in the race for the next-generation memory chip.

A market official, however, downplayed the attempt of the two by saying “it would take time for them to mass-produce the chip.”

By Kim Young-won  (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)