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Micron announces industrys first 176-layer QLC NAND mass production shipment and PCIe Gen4 compatible Micron 2400 SSD for clients

2022-01-20 | Return
●Innovative technology to optimize products for customers
World's first SSD in 22x30mm form factor and 2TB capacity

January 11, 2022 - Boise, Idaho, Micron Technology, Inc.today announced that it has begun mass production of the world's first 176-layer QLC NAND-based SSD. Micron's 176-layer QLC NAND-based SSDs use the most advanced NAND architecture to deliver industry-leading storage density, delivering optimized performance for a variety of high-capacity applications. Micron's innovative new NAND technology, designed for applications ranging from the client to the data center, is now the world's first client-facing Micron® 2400 PCIe Gen4 compliant SSD with 176-layer QLC NAND, available as an SSD. The new 176-layer QLC NAND will also be used in some of Micron's consumer brand Crucial SSDs and will be available as components to system designers.

Developed by Micron, the innovative 176-layer QLC NAND features the highest stack count and density of any QLC NAND flash memory product and is the successor to Micron's industry-leading 176-layer TLC NAND. Compared to the company's previous generation solution, Micron's 176-layer QLC NAND delivers 33% faster I/O speed*[1] and 24% lower read latency*[2]. In addition, the replacement gate architecture used in this product is the only mass-produced QLC flash memory product that combines charge traps and array designs under CMOS. Through these improvements, the introduction rate of QLC SSDs in the client PC market will increase. By 2023, the introduction rate of QLC will reach 35%, which is three times the current rate, and the bit share will reach about 80% by 2025. It is expected to rise* [3].

"The Micron 2400 SSD builds on Micron's industry-leading 176-layer NAND to migrate customer market storage solutions to QLC-based solutions," said Jeremy Warner, vice president and general manager of Micron's Storage Business Unit. "Micron further strengthens the market leadership while broadening the market. We hope the introduction of QLC in customer premises equipment will be greatly accelerated with this PCIe Gen4 compatible Micron 2400 SSD, which offers design options at a lower cost.”

QLC NAND SSD for everyday computing

The Micron 2400 SSD is the industry's highest storage density for value-conscious mainstream NVMe SSDs, enabling flexible system design and an uncompromising user experience. Using 176-layer NAND and PCIe Gen4 technology, the Micron 2400 SSD doubles the performance, delivers 23% faster delivery times, and has faster boot and load times than Micron's previous-generation client SSDs. *[4].

The Micron 2400 SSD is currently the only 22x30mm M.2 SSD in the industry with a capacity of 2TB. Compared to the 22x80mm M.2 form factor, this form factor is physically 63% smaller, providing greater design flexibility and ideal for implementation on smaller mobile laptops. The Micron 2400 SSD is also available in 22x42mm and 22x80mm M.2 form factors to minimize design certification tasks and has the advantage of using common firmware across a range of sizes.

The Micron 2400 SSD provides a great user experience in a variety of applications thanks to Micron's host memory buffering technology, which gives the host the flexibility to optimize performance. The Micron 2400 SSD also features low power consumption, allowing it to process a full day without limits, halving idle power consumption in active mode compared to Micron's previous generation solutions. The Micron 2400 SSD is based on a design that complies with Intel's "Project Athena" requirements and delivers over 9 hours of real-world battery life* [5], even on laptops with high-resolution displays.

References
Product Overview: Micron QLC NAND Technology
Product Overview: PCIe Gen4 Compatible with Micron 2400 SSD
White Paper: PCIe Gen4 Compatible with Micron 2400 SSD

[1] ONFI 4.x - 1600 MT / s vs 1200 MT / s
[2] Comparison with Micron's previous generation 96-layer QLC NAND
[3] Forward Insights, SSD Insights, November 2021
[4] Comparison with Micron's previous generation 96-layer QLC NAND
[5] According to Intel testing on Intel.com: Project Athena — A program to bring a new class of laptops (intel.com)

Source: https://www.micron.com