SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has developed the industry's highest 238-layer NAND Flash product. The company has recently shipped samples of the 238-layer 512Gb triple level cell (TLC) 4D NAND product to customers with a plan to start mass production in the first half of 2023. "The latest achievement follows development of the 176-layer NAND product in December 2020," the company stated. "It is notable that the latest 238-layer product is most layered and smallest in area at the same time."

The company unveiled development of the latest product at the Flash Memory Summit 2022 in Santa Clara. "SK hynix secured global top-tier competitiveness in perspective of cost, performance and quality by introducing the 238-layer product based on its 4D NAND technologies," said Jungdal Choi, Head of NAND Development at SK hynix in his keynote speech during the event. "We will continue innovations to find breakthroughs in technological challenges."

Kioxia Corporation today announced that it has collaborated with Aerospike to enhance Aerospike Server Community Edition database - resulting in a 36 % increase in application performance compared with the original software without the enhancement by Kioxia. Testing was performed with KIOXIA FL6 Series enterprise NVMe Storage Class Memory (SCM) SSDs with a software enhancement developed by Kioxia.

The Aerospike database is optimized to run on flash memory and SSD devices and is capable of providing high throughput and low latency on flash memory. Featuring Kioxia's SCM solution, XL-FLASH, the PCIe 4.0 and NVMe 1.4 -compliant KIOXIA FL6 Series SSDs bridge the gap between DRAM and TLC-based drives, making them well-suited to latency-sensitive use cases such as caching layer, tiering and write logging. Currently, in mass production, dual-port KIOXIA FL6 Series drives deliver high endurance (60 DWPD) and are available in capacities up to 3,200 GB.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced that it has begun volume production of the world's first 232-layer NAND, built with industry-leading innovations to drive unprecedented performance for storage solutions. It features the industry's highest areal density and delivers higher capacity and improved energy efficiency over previous generations of Micron NAND, to enable best-in-class support of the most data-intensive use cases from client to cloud.

"Micron's 232-layer NAND is a watershed moment for storage innovation as first proof of the capability to scale 3D NAND to more than 200 layers in production," said Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of technology and products at Micron. "This groundbreaking technology required extensive innovation, including advanced process capabilities to create high aspect ratio structures, novel materials advancements and leading-edge design enhancements that build on our market-leading 176-layer NAND technology."

With the rise of high-performance computing (HPC), the demand for industrial product cooling has increased dramatically due to higher power requirements and heat generation in demanding industrial applications and platforms. In response, Team Group has adopted the VC (Vapor Chamber) liquid cooling technology, commonly for mobile devices, and introduced the industry's first M.2 SSD VC liquid cooling technology. The VC liquid cooling tube was redesigned from the ground up for PCIe M.2 SSD applications based on the high-speed transfer rates and heat generation patterns of high-speed PCIe M.2 SSD. The result is a liquid-cooled PCIe M.2 SSD with outstanding thermal performance that can sustain high-speed operation in harsh and dynamic industrial environments.

Team Group's N74V-M80 is an industrial grade VC Cooling M.2 SSD that utilizes proprietary liquid cooling technology (Taiwan Utility Model Patent: M626519). Through the specially designed VC liquid cooling tubes, cooling fluid is pumped to the heat zone of PCIe M.2 SSD controller. Heat is then transferred to the aluminium fin heat sink with a convective design via gas-liquid phase transition to enhance thermal performance. The N74V-M80 combines the functions of heat absorption, conduction, and dissipation to better transfer and regulate thermal energy.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade DRAM modules and NAND Flash products today announces the industrial-grade ADATA 31C series 112-layer 3D NAND (BiCS5) solid state drives (SSD) utilizing the SATA III interface. They include the ISSS31C 2.5-inch, IM2S31C8 M.2 2280, and IM2S31C4 M.2 2242 SSDs. All three SSDs are designed to be energy efficient, feature high capacities, and are well suited for high-load industrial systems relating to industrial computing, embedded devices, automation, networking, transportation, and other fields.

The industrial-grade ISSS31C 2.5-inch, IM2S31C8 M.2 2280, and IM2S31C4 M.2 2242 SSDs are all equipped with 112-layer 3D TLC (BiCS5) flash memory developed by WDC and KIOXIA and come with a maximum capacity of 2 TB. They have undergone rigorous temperature verification and testing to ensure they can operate optimally in a wide range of temperatures (from -40 °C to 85 °C) to ensure excellent quality, reliability, and durability.

Just under a month ago, ASUS posted a teaser for its first internal SSD, the ROG Strix SQ7 and now the company has finally released the full specs. It is indeed based around the 12 nm Phison E18 controller, as predicted by our Editor-In-Chief, something he spotted from the sneak peek picture. Although ASUS didn't specifically mention what kind of flash the drive is using, they kindly left the flash model number visible in one of its pictures of the drive. Although the full model name isn't visible, enough of it is visible to identify it as Micron's 176-layer TLC flash. The ROG Strix SQ7 also sports a DDR4 cache, as expected, although ASUS doesn't mention clock speeds.

ASUS claims the drive will deliver sequential read speeds of up to 7000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6000 MB/s, which places the ROG Strix SQ7 in direct competition with several other Phison E18 based high-end drives from the likes of Kingston, MSI, Sabrent and others. Unfortunately, ASUS doesn't mention IOPS or random performance, although an unspecified "large" SLC cache is mentioned. Other features include TGC Opal and AES 256-bit encryption. ASUS also provides its own SSD dashboard, which of course is ROG branded, but looks like a skinned version of Phison's standard SSD dashboard, rather than something custom made. ASUS also provides a copy of NTI Backup Now EZ software and the drives appear to have a five year warranty. ASUS mentions PS5 compatibility outside of the PC space. No word on pricing or retail availability was provided and so far ASUS has only listed a 1 TB model.

During its investors day yesterday, Micron revealed its 232-layer NAND Flash, which for now is the most advanced of its kind. Micron is using what the company calls CMOS Under Array or CuA as the platform to build a pair of TLC stacks on top of, for a total of 232-layers. Each stacked NAND Flash chip is said to have a capacity of 1 Terabit, or 128 GB, so we're not seeing any new capacity increases at this point, compared to the competition, but Micron is promising increased bandwidth node-over-node, so we might end up seeing better performance compared to its competitors. The new NAND Flash is supposed to be optimised for SSDs and other "managed" NAND, such as eMMC and UFS.

Micron also revealed an updated NAND Flash roadmap, with the company planning even more 200 plus layer products before moving to 300 and 400-layer stacks of NAND in the future. The 300-layer stacks are already under structural development, whereas the 400-layer products are still in the very early stages of research. The new 232-layer products are said to go into mass production towards the end of this year, so we shouldn't expect to see products based on Micron's 232-layer NAND until sometime in 2023.

ATP Electronics, the global leader in specialized storage and memory solutions, rolls out its N600Vc Series M.2 2242/2280 NVMe 1.3 PCIe Gen3x4 and A600Vc Series SATA 2.5", M.2 2242/2280, and mSATA Value Line solid state drives (SSDs). Built with triple-level cell (TLC) NAND on leading 100+-layer 3D architecture, the new line is geared toward industrial/embedded applications requiring reliable performance, wide range of capacity options, and long-term supply commitment at friendly price points.

The new N600Vc/A600Vc Series SSDs offer lower cost per GB compared to ATP's mainstream Superior Line, but use prime NAND die along with ATP's superior integrated circuits (IC) sorting process to guarantee drive quality, performance, reliability, and endurance better than other SSD solutions in the market that use pre-packaged ICs instead of wafers or die.

For years, T-FORCE, the gaming sub-brand of global memory provider TEAMGROUP, has been releasing a full range of SSDs to meet the various needs of gamers. Today, a new generation of T-FORCE VULCAN Z SATA SSDs has been announced, providing a faster and smoother gaming experience, and is the best choice for those who are upgrading their SATA storage device from a HDD to a gaming SSD.

The T-FORCE VULCAN Z SATA SSD features carefully selected 3D TLC flash memory chips that deliver smooth read speeds of up to 550 MB/s and write speeds of up to 500 MB/s. The transfer performance is four times higher than that of traditional HDD, providing upgraders a completely new gaming experience. The VULCAN Z SSD has a built-in automatic error correction (ECC) feature that greatly enhances the accuracy of game data storage. It also fully supports Windows TRIM optimization commands and utilizes S.M.A.R.T health monitoring technology. All together, these features help optimize the SSD's read and write conditions and extend the life of the SSD so that gamers can keep their precious game data safe and secure.

For many years, TEAMGROUP has been developing high-quality products for industrial use and automation applications. In response to the growing market for 5G applications, the company this year is focusing on the new market demands of 5G infrastructure, AloT edge computing, and autonomous driving, as well as in-vehicle computing and environmental safety control applications. Today, TEAMGROUP is announcing its 745 SSD Series, which features the 5th generation BiCS NAND flash memory. It's a comprehensive industrial solution that comes with high capacities, low latencies, and high durability for the various application of industrial market.

The TEAMGROUP 745 SSD Series uses the new 112-layer 3D TLC and the latest 5th generation BiCS NAND flash memory, giving it approximately 40% more capacity and 50% better I/O performance than BiCS4 SSDs. This makes it fully suitable for the high-capacity, low-latency transmission requirements of edge computing. To meet the needs of a wide range of industrial applications, the 745 SSD Series is available in a variety of form factors with mainstream specifications, including models with SATA and PCIe Gen3x4 interfaces and capacities from 128 GB to 2 TB, offering the industry a variety of professional options. The 745 SSD Series is also equipped with SLC cache technology, which improves SSD read and write efficiency and supports high AI load for smart manufacturing and autonomous driving, while the AES 256-bit encryption prevents data security concerns and ensures safety and stability of the SSD.

As industries compete to capitalize on the abundance of data generated by intelligent, connected devices, implementation of an intelligent data strategy has become even more critical. Edge computing has played an instrumental role to address this demand, but the edge itself has continued to evolve with the ever-growing need for even more demanding, real-time computing. Rugged edge computing enables applications that require real-time, low latency data processing and storage to function reliably in volatile environments that are not friendly to regular systems.

Trends and technologies such as Industry 4.0, AIoT, and 5G are driving the need for improved intelligence at the rugged edge. Businesses and organizations want more computing power at the edge because of the benefits it provides to their operations. NVM Express (NVMe) is an essential enabling technology for rugged edge computing, reducing latency and accelerating data processing to the point where connected devices can operate anywhere to perform machine learning, artificial intelligence, and inference computing. Real-time data access and analytics are turning rugged edge computing into a competitive necessity across all sectors and industries.

Swissbit has expanded its product range with the launch of the M.2 SATA SSD X-78m2. The new series is designed for especially write-intensive applications, is ideal for audio, video, and data recording, as well as serving as a boot medium, and achieves 2.5 times the endurance of previous generations. At the same time, it meets the most stringent requirements for reliability, temperature stability, and longevity. This makes the SSD suitable for any application that requires high endurance without compromising on data retention or temperature profiles.

Typical target applications include industrial PCs, point-of-sale (PoS) systems, embedded and surveillance systems, as well as mission-critical applications in the transportation, medical, networking, and communications sectors. The X-78m2 series is based on the compact M.2 2242 form factor and is immediately available with storage capacities ranging from 40 GB to 320 GB.

ADATA Technology (Taiwan Stock Exchange: 3260.TWO), a global leading brand of industrial-grade memory, including flash storage products and DRAM modules, today announces that its in-house developed firmware for 112-Layer (BiCS5) 3D NAND PCIe solid state drives has become University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) NVMe 1.4 certified. The certification reaffirms ADATA's core competencies in R&D and commitment to offering high performance SSDs. UNH-IOL is an independent test facility that provides interoperability and standards conformance testing for networking, telecommunications, data storage, and consumer technology products.

The IM2P32A8 M.2 2280 and IM2P32A4 M.2 2242 industrial-grade solid state drives will benefit from the newly certified firmware. What's more, both SSDs feature 112-layer 3D TLC Flash memory developed by WD and KIOXIA, supports the PCIe Gen3x4 interface, and provides large capacities of up to 2 TB. With ADATA's firmware, they provide improved performance and interoperability. In addition to processing large volumes of data, the SSDs can also serve as storage devices or a boot disk, which can fulfill the needs of applications such as 5G, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), smart cities, and telemedicine.

Apacer has taken 3D NAND Flash optimization to new heights. Today, it announces the release of SLC-liteX industrial SSDs that can provide an incredible 100,000 P/E cycles. That's 3 to 33 times higher than competing 2D MLC or 3D TLC products can offer. 5G and AIoT manufacturers who are invested in large-scale data collection and analysis, including those demanding higher capacities, higher performance and higher endurance, will quickly see the advantages of this development. According to Allied Market Research, "the global 3D NAND flash memory market size was valued at $12.38 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $78.42 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 20.3% from 2021 to 2030."

The endurance of any NAND Flash product can be measured in P/E cycles. Every time a write or erase action is performed, the Flash cell will suffer irreparable damage. In the industrial world, 3,000 P/E cycles was considered quite a competitive number. But with increasing demands for greater endurance thresholds in applications such as 5G O-RAN and edge computing switches, the market was hungry for more - while still recognizing the paramount importance of cost-effectiveness. Apacer's crack team of firmware experts tackled the problem and were able to tweak the technology to deliver 100,000 P/E cycles. Careful cell distribution management of the 3D TLC structure was necessary in order to correctly adjust the voltage delta and charge sensing. Furthermore, powered by carefully selected industrial grade NAND components, the firmware structure is specifically optimized to enhance NAND flash stability during daily operations, and the error handling algorithm is significantly improved to avoid any unexpected ECC errors.

Nextorage Corporation will launch a PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 ("PCIe 4.0") M.2 2280 NVMe SSD "NEM-PA series" for the USA market from March. The products are initially sold on Amazon. Nextorage was established on October 1, 2019, as a company specializing in the memory storage solutions business led by engineers and staff who built on 20 years of history in memory storage at Sony.

The NEM-PA series is an M.2 2280 SSD equipped with a PCIe 4.0 / NVMe 1.4 controller and a 3D TLC NAND, and comes with a heatsink for heat dissipation. The drive achieves sequential read up to 7,300 MB/s, sequential write up to 6,900 MB/s, and random read/write up to 1,000 K IOPS (in a PC environment). The NEM-PA series delivers both high-speed loading and smooth gaming experience.

ATP Electronics, the global leader in specialized storage and memory solutions, has introduced its latest line of e.MMC devices built on 3D triple level cell (TLC) NAND. Using a new die package, the E750Pi/Pc and E650Si/Sc Series offer long-life performance, optimized power consumption and customizable configuration options. ATP's new E750Pi/Pc Series e.MMC offerings are built with 3D TLC NAND flash but are configured as pseudo SLC (pSLC) to offer endurance on par with SLC NAND, while E650Si/Sc Series in native TLC has near-MLC endurance.

The E750Pi and E650Si Series are industrial temperature-operable (-40°C to 85°C), making them ideal for deployment in scenarios with extreme thermal challenges and harsh environments, while E750Pc and E650Sc support -25°C to 85°C operating temperatures for applications with non-critical thermal requirements.

CORSAIR, a world leader in enthusiast components for gamers, creators, and PC builders, today announced the launch of a new M.2 Solid State Drive crafted for PlayStation 5 - the MP600 PRO LPX. Available in capacities from 500 GB up to a colossal 4 TB, the MP600 PRO LPX expands your console's storage in a specially built compact form-factor that meets or exceeds all performance requirements. With blazing-fast save and load times for your entire game library, the MP600 PRO LPX delivers a massive upgrade for your storage.

The MP600 PRO LPX is specifically crafted for optimal performance in PlayStation 5, right out of the box. A specially designed low-profile aluminium heatsink ensures the MP600 PRO LPX remains cool even under the highest in-game load, and fits perfectly inside the console. Installation takes minutes, does not affect your console's warranty, and is instantly detected by your system on startup, enabling up to 4 TB of additional capacity. Loading large game files blisteringly fast - directly from the SSD - MP600 PRO LPX leaves external storage alternatives in the dust and allows you to experience your games at their uninterrupted best.

Our in-depth review of the MP600 Pro LPX is already live.

KINGMAX today unveiled the PQ4480, an interesting "entry-level" M.2 NVMe SSD. While it features a PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, it doesn't really utilize that kind of bandwidth, and should offer nearly-identical performance with both PCIe Gen3 and Gen4 M.2 slots. While the company doesn't mention the controller + NAND flash combination in play, we predict this to be a Phison PS5019-E19T PCIe Gen4 DRAM-less controller, paired with 3D TLC NAND flash memory.

The PQ4480 comes in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB. All three capacity variants offer sequential read speeds of up to 3600 MB/s. The 250 GB variant writes at up to 1200 MB/s and has 4K random access speeds of up to 150k/300k IOPS reads/writes, the 500 GB variant up to 2300 MB/s with up to 300k/350k IOPS, and the 1 TB variant up to 3000 MB/s, with up to 400k/450k IOPS. Endurance is rated at 150 TBW for the 250 GB variant, 300 TBW for the 500 GB variant, and 600 TBW for the 1 TB variant. KINGMAX is backing these drives with 3-year warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ADATA Technology (Taiwan Stock Exchange: 3260.TWO), a manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, mobile accessories, gaming products, electric power trains, and industrial solutions, today announces the ADATA ISSS31AP industrial-grade 2.5-inch solid state drive (SSD). With high capacity of 4 TB, Power Lost Protection (PLP), and multiple data security technologies, it is ideally suited for 5G networks, Internet of Things, industrial PCs, automation, and other applications.

According to research firm IDC, global SSD shipments are estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.8% by 2025. As the requirements of enterprise storage customers and cloud service providers continue to become ever more discerning, the adoption of more durable and reliable high-performance solid state drives equipped with 3D Flash will no doubt continue to grow.

A company dealing with niche audiophile-grade electronics on Audiophile Style, a popular site and marketplace for the community, conjured up an SSD that it feels offers the best possible audio. Put simply, this is an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD with a fully-independent power delivery mechanism (one that's isolated from the motherboard's power delivery), and an over-the-top discrete clock-source for its controller. The drive has its own 5 V 2-pin DC input and switching hardware onboard, including [get this] a pair of Audionote Kaisei audio-grade electrolytic capacitors in place of what should have been simple solid-state SMD capacitors that are hard to even notice on any other drive. It doesn't end there.

Most NVMe SSDs have a tiny 2 mm x 2 mm SMD oscillator that's used by the controller for clock-generation. This drive features a Crystek CCHD-957 high-grade Femto oscillator. These oscillators are found in some very high-grade production or scientific equipment, such as data-loggers. For the drive itself, you get a Realtek DRAM-less controller, and a single 1 TB TLC NAND flash chip that's forced to operate in SLC mode (333 GB). On a scale of absurdity, this drive is right up there with $10,000 HDMI cables. Digital audio is stored in ones and zeroes, and nothing is accomplished through an isolated power delivery or clock generation on the storage media. It's nice of the designers to include jumpers that let you switch between the discrete power source and motherboard power; so listeners can see the snake-oil for themselves.

Greenliant is now shipping its wide temperature (W-temp) microSD ArmourDrive PX Series, built with advanced 3-bit-per-cell (TLC) 3D NAND flash memory. Available from 32 GB to 256 GB, W-temp (-25 to +85 degrees Celsius) microSD ArmourDrive PX Series industrial memory cards support 3,000 program-erase (P/E) cycles, and are tested to withstand shock, vibration and water. See microSD ArmourDrive product information at http://bit.ly/SD-microSD.

"With the addition of the W-temp 93 PX Series, Greenliant now offers one of the broadest microSD industrial memory card portfolios," said Arthur Kroyan, vice president of business development and marketing, Greenliant. "The 93 PX Series has been designed to meet performance, reliability and long-term support requirements from demanding video, security, networking and industrial applications."

TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co have recently announced plans to release a 4K 32-inch 240 Hz curved panel for use in gaming monitors at the Global Display Tech-Ecosystem Conference (DTC 2021). This new panel would be the fastest available in any 4K gaming monitor, while details are limited the 32" UD 240Hz R800 Gaming Display is expected to include 1 ms response times and a proprietary image compression algorithm. The monitor is unlikely to be sold directly by TCL as the company usually sells unbranded monitors to OEMs for customization such as with their current 144 Hz 4K monitors. The pricing and availability details were also not announced by TCL so it could be some time until you can purchase one of these monitors.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories today announces the new upgraded ADATA IM2P33E8 PLP PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 solid state drive (SSD) with Power Loss Protection (PLP) technology. Since its launch in 2019, the IM2P33E8 has been recognized by industry insiders and customers involved in 5G, IoT, cloud, AI and other industrial applications for its excellent performance, high capacities, and comprehensive data security mechanism.

In order to meet the requirements of industrial applications in the era of 5G, IoT, Cloud, AI, and big data analytics, ADATA is offering an SSD that is able to operate for longer after power outages and reduce the misidentification of bad blocks. This was achieved by the inclusion of tantalum polymer capacitors to the IM2P33E8 PLP. Tantalum polymer capacitors have the ability to reduce the detriment caused by power outages, most notably data loss.

Kingston FURY, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced Kingston FURY Renegade SSD, its next generation PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 drive for gamers, enthusiasts, and high-power users. Kingston FURY Renegade SSD delivers cutting-edge performance in high capacities using the latest Gen 4x4 controller and 3D TLC NAND.

By maximizing the available bandwidth of PCIe 4.0, Kingston FURY Renegade SSD achieves speeds up to 7,300/7,000 MB/s read/write and up to 1,000,000 IOPS to deliver amazing consistency for an exceptional gaming experience. The drive is optimized to reduce game and application load times, stream and capture with ease and give your system an overall boost in responsiveness. Available in high capacities up to 4 TB, users can store an extensive library of their favorite games and media and still have space for the latest titles. In addition to formidable speeds and massive capacity options, Kingston FURY Renegade SSD combines a slim M.2 form factor and an advanced low profile, graphene aluminium heatspreader to keep your drive cool during intense usage and bring superior performance to the tightest of spaces in gaming PC's and laptops.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced KC3000, its next generation PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD for desktop and laptop PCs. KC3000 SSD offers next-level performance using the latest Gen 4x4 NVMe controller and 3D TLC NAND ideal for power users who require the fastest speeds on the market.

By leveraging Gen4 technology, KC3000 delivers speeds up to 7,0000/7,000 MB/s read/write of blazing-fast performance and full capacities up to 4096GB2 for optimal storage. Users can keep up with demanding workloads and experience better performance with software applications such as 3D rendering and 4K+ content creation by upgrading the systems storage. KC3000 is built with high-density 3D TLC NAND housed in the industry standard M.2 2280 form factor to store even more and enable users to take advantage of PCIe 4.0 speeds. With the combination of performance and endurance, KC3000 is reinforced with a low profile, graphene aluminium heatspreader to effectively disperse heat and keep your drive cool during intensive workloads.