Tag Archives: NAND

Western Digital unveiled the world's first 2Tb 3D QLC NAND Flash at a recent investor presentation. These cutting-edge NAND flash memory modules are primarily aimed at the AI segment, but they could also allow manufacturers to create larger storage drives for the mainstream market. Still a prototype, these new NAND …

In recent months, there have been rumours claiming that merger discussions are taking place between Kioxia and Western Digital. Now, it seems that we're nearing an official announcement.  According to Kyodo News (via Tom's Hardware), Kioxia and Western Digital are on the verge of completing their merger, which might happen …

This week Micron announced a major development in the form of the world's first 232-layer NAND. Featuring the industry-leading areal density, the new NAND delivers higher capacity and improved efficiency over previous generations.

The SSD market could see a price spike over the coming months, as Western Digital and Kioxia have reportedly lost 6.5 exabytes of flash storage to contamination issues at its factories.  As reported by TrendForce, Western Digital (WDC) and Kioxia found a material contamination at NAND Flash production lines in …

Back in 2019, Toshiba Memory spun off into its own company and rebranded as Kioxia. Now, just two years later, there is talk of a huge merger, which would see Kioxia combining with Western Digital in a deal worth around $20 billion.  According to WSJ (via Reuters), there are on-going …

SK Hynix is already huge in the NAND flash and storage business but it is about to get bigger. Last year, the company announced plans to acquire Intel's NAND memory and storage business for $9 billion, a deal that has now been approved by regulators.  SK Hynix is acquiring Intel's NAND …

Today Samsung announced its plans to expand its NAND flash production capacity in Pyeongtaek, Korea. Samsung said that the facility is being constructed to address upcoming data centre and mobile demands. Construction of the new facility started in May of this year and, if everything goes according to plan, it …

There has been plenty of news around the DRAM and NAND market over the last couple of weeks. Firstly, a Samsung facility suffered a small power outage leading to several days of production downtime. Beyond that, analysts are putting in their predictions for 2020, setting expectations for price rises.  Trendforce …

The NAND flash market has been through plenty of ups and downs over the last few years. Unfortunately for consumers, we are looking at another period of price increases, with analysts predicting flash memory prices to rise by as much as 40 percent.  DRAMeXchange, a division of Trendforce, started off …

There has been talk of NAND and DRAM supply getting back on track this year but sometimes, unforeseen circumstances can get in the way. This time around, one of Samsung's fabrication plants has suffered a power outage and while the power was down for only one minute, it will take …

Due to a recent fall in the price of NAND, the overall cost of SSD manufacture has become a little lower – this means companies are able to provide higher capacity drives at a more competitive price, in budget-friendly ranges. The BX500 series from Crucial is a popular budget-friendly SSD …

Investigations are currently underway to determine whether or not there has been foul play among the top three memory manufacturers, after Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron were accused of fixing the prices of DRAM and NAND memory throughout 2017. This has prompted China’s Ministry of Commerce to step in and …

Over the last year, we've been encountering increased reports of DRAM and NAND flash price increases. Each time, this has been chocked up to high demand and factories not being able to supply enough. However, it looks like China's economic regulator may think there's more to it, as a price …

Last year, we first began hearing about DRAM and NAND supply shortages set to take place over the course of this year. Over the last few months, things haven't really improved, with inflated pricing still affecting consumers in many countries. However, it looks like the end might be in sight, …

  The price of DRAM has been rising since early this year due to supply falling short of demand, and while we have been prepared for this continue on until 2018, we now have a better look into just how much. Unfortunately for PC buyers, this could range as high …

Over the last year, we have seen plenty of price hikes in the tech world. A DRAM and NAND shortage has caused SSD and RAM prices to jump, but it looks like silicon prices are also set to rise over the next few years, which will have further reaching effects …

In the midst of all the announcements yesterday, Apple did quietly make one change to its iPad lineup. We've known since the start of this year that 2017 was going to be tough for NAND flash and DRAM shortages and now, that seems to have caught up with Apple as …

It was a week ago that KitGuru published its review of the WD Blue 500GB SSD with 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND technology. At the time, we expected pricing for the review unit to be a penny under £168, but it seems that the stock that landed at UK retailers this …

Over the last couple of months, Western Digital and Toshiba have been embroiled in an ugly legal battle. Toshiba is currently looking to sell off Toshiba Memory Corp, which co-owns a NAND manufacturing plant in Japan with Western Digital. We knew that WD wanted a say in Toshiba's TMC sale …

It looks like things between Toshiba and Western Digital are about to get ugly. Last week, we learned that WD was unhappy with Toshiba's efforts to sell its share of a NAND flash factory in Japan and now, Toshiba is firing back with a massive £835 million lawsuit, accusing Western …

Over the course of this year, we have been consistently hearing reports surrounding DRAM and NAND shortages, causing a strain on supply and ultimately, pricing. When these shortages first crept up in late 2016, it was thought that everything would go back to normal in the second half of this …

It seems that Toshiba just can't catch a break. After a year of pretty hefty losses and a multi-billion dollar writedown which forced its hand into the sale of its cash-cow NAND business and, more recently, releasing its much-delayed Q1'17 earnings reports without the approval of its consultants PwC, it …

Reports have surfaced in the Japanese press that TSMC has quit on its bid to buy Toshiba's rather precious NAND-flash business, leaving Foxconn in the lead position. Foxconn has offered to pony-up 3 trillion Yen (around $30 billion), or $21.2 billion more than what Reuters had reported as the sought-after …

Samsung has become the first company to begin mass producing 10nm-class DRAM, using a new process known as argon fluoride immersion lithography, which takes over from the previous extreme ultraviolet process. Samsung will be releasing 8GB DDR4 RAM using these new chips, which offer improved data rates and power efficiency …

Just after yesterday's news regarding Western Digital's talks to buy memory chip maker, SanDisk, the acquisition has been announced. WD will be taking over SanDisk for $19 billion, or $86.50 per share. The news was confirmed by Western Digital itself in a hefty press release posted online today. This acquisition …

SK Hynix has announced plans to bring 36-layer 3D NAND flash chips to the market later this year, with plans to produce 48-layer 3D NAND Flash in place for some time next year. The South Korean based company also recently started mass producing 20nm class DRAM, though it is still …

Micron Technology on Friday acquired Tidal Systems, a promising startup, which develops controllers for solid-state drives. With the acquisition of Tidal Systems, Micron will no longer have to rely on SSD system-on-chips developed by other companies. Besides, it will be able to tailor controllers for its memory, something that is …

Micron Technology plans to finally start shipments of consumer solid-state drives based on triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash in the ongoing quarter, the company revealed this week. SSDs featuring TLC NAND memory will be generally more affordable than non-volatile storage solutions powered by multi-level cell (MLC) flash. “We will begin shipping …

Samsung Electronics predicts that the NAND flash industry will triple output of non-volatile memory over the next five years and will produce whopping 253 exabytes of NAND in 2020. Although the increase is impressive, total output of flash memory will account for less than 10 per cent of storage capacity …

Intel Corp. has quietly introduced its new family of solid-state drives designed for datacentres. The new Intel DC P3608 SSDs feature up to 4TB capacity as well as up to 5GB/s sequential read speed, they are among the highest-performing solid-state drives in the industry right now. The drives are designed …