Samsung begins production of 5th gen 256Gb V-NAND memory

Samsung Electronics has begun mass producing its fifth-generation V-NAND memory chips.

The new memory is the first to use the "Toggle DDR 4.0" interface, which offers a data transfer speed of 1.4 Gbps between storage and memory -- a 40% increase from Samsung's 64-layer predecessor. Samsung said its new V-NAND also has the fastest data write speed to date at 500-microseconds (μs), which represents about a 30% improvement over the write speed of the previous generation, while the response time to read-signals has been significantly reduced to 50μs.

Samsung’s fifth-generation V-NAND packs more than 90 layers of ‘3D charge trap flash (CTF) cells,’ the largest amount in the industry, stacked in a pyramid structure with microscopic channel holes vertically drilled throughout. These channel holes, which are only a few hundred-nanometers (nm)-wide, contain more than 85 billion CTF cells that can store three bits of data each. This state-of-the-art memory fabrication is the result of several breakthroughs that include advanced circuit designs and new process technologies.

“Samsung’s fifth-generation V-NAND products and solutions will deliver the most advanced NAND in the rapidly growing premium memory market,” said Kye Hyun Kyung, executive vice president of Flash Product and Technology at Samsung Electronics. “In addition to the leading-edge advances we are announcing today, we are preparing to introduce 1-terabit (Tb) and QLC (quad-level cell) offerings to our V-NAND lineup that will continue to drive momentum for next-generation NAND memory solutions throughout the global market.”