Samsung starts mass production 3D nandflash with 3 bits per cell

Samsung has started mass production of its ‘three-dimensional’ v-nand with 3 instead of 2 bits per memory cell. The use of such memory can lead to lower costs for Samsung and therefore cheaper SSDs.

Samsung combines its 3d-v-nand memory and technology based on 3 bits per memory cell for SSDs. Samsung uses the TLC memory for its second generation of v-nandflash, with 32 instead of 24 vertically stacked cell layers per nand chip. This means that each chip comes to 128Gb or 16GB.

Samsung released the first consumer SSDs with 3D Nand last summer: the 850 Pro. Layer stacking allows more efficient use of available space, allowing the use of ‘older’ but proven production processes at the same data density as recent 21nm or 19nm production. This brings benefits in terms of service life.

The first SSDs with TLC from Samsung were the 840 models, which the company released in 2012. The biggest advantage is lowering costs for Samsung: the manufacturer can get more dies from wafers. The switch can therefore lead to cheaper SSDs. “The 3bit-v-nand will accelerate the transition of data storage from hard drives to SSDs,” said Jaesoo Han, memory marketing chief at Samsung Electronics.