Samsung begins mass production of 256-Gigabit, 3D V-NAND Flash

[HEXUS]

Its 3rd gen V-NAND will start to be used in terabyte-level SSDs from later this month.

Read more.

[b0redom]

1 Million IOPS

Holy database transaction throughput Batman!

Can't see these being affordable for the consumer for a while though.

[kalniel]

1 Million IOPS

Holy database transaction throughput Batman!

Can't see these being affordable for the consumer for a while though.

I think they will be before you know it - it's a cheaper route to 1TB than the current chips.

[watercooled]

I can only see TLC mentioned but I wonder if they'll be doing an MLC version too? I know it's not the same as for planar NAND but the theoretically huge endurance of current 3D MLC is probably worth a bit extra for a lot of people.

[azrael-]

I can only see TLC mentioned but I wonder if they'll be doing an MLC version too? I know it's not the same as for planar NAND but the theoretically huge endurance of current 3D MLC is probably worth a bit extra for a lot of people.

It's the same die. Whether it is used as MLC or TLC NAND is determined at a later stage. Even today the 850 EVO and PRO SSDs use the same V-NAND.

FWIW I can't see those new chips used in drives fast enough. Got a 1 TB SSD at the top of my wish list replacing my WD Black 1 TB from ages ago. Fingers crossed it'll hold out until I can upgrade.

[watercooled]

Yeah I'm aware it's the same die (though this isn't necessarily always the case) but it's entirely possible that it would only support TLC (unlikely but still possible) or Samsung would only use TLC mode in their SSDs. It's mostly down to the on-die logic whether MLC/TLC are supported as NAND dies aren't just dumb memory chips. The controller talks to this logic via Toggle/ONFI, it doesn't physically program the NAND itself.

However I was talking more about SSDs than the raw NAND.

[HavoCnMe]

The only reason I like this announcement is because this will drive the cost down on current ssds.

What I find awesome about this article is the following: "Just over a week ago we reported upon Toshiba and SanDisk unveiling the world's first 256Gb, 48-Layer BiCS NAND....with mass production expected to start in mid-2016."

Samsung comes along and says "Oh, we have that too, except we've STARTED mass production." Right when Toshiba and SanDisk start mass producing their nand next year Samsung will be releasing their finished product to the masses.