Western Digital introduces world’s first 512 Gb 64-layer 3D NAND chip

• Company presents paper on the development of the new chip at ISSCC
• Jointly developed with technology and manufacturing partner Toshiba

WESTERN Digital Corp on Feb 8 announced that it has commenced pilot production of the company’s 512 Gigabit (Gb) three-bits-per-cell (X3) 64-layer 3D NAND (BICS3) chip in Yokkaichi, Japan, with mass production expected in the second half of 2017.

The first of its kind, the chip is the latest achievement in a nearly three-decades-long legacy of flash memory industry firsts from the company.

“The launch of the industry’s first 512Gb 64-layer 3D NAND chip is another important stride forward in the advancement of our 3D NAND technology, doubling the density from when we introduced the world’s first 64-layer architecture in July 2016,” said Dr. Siva Sivaram, executive vice president, memory technology, Western Digital.

“This is a great addition to our rapidly broadening 3D NAND technology portfolio. It positions us well to continue addressing the increasing demand for storage due to rapid data growth across a wide range of customer retail, mobile and data centre applications.”

The 512Gb 64-layer chip was developed jointly with the company’s technology and manufacturing partner Toshiba. Western Digital first introduced initial capacities of the world’s first 64-layer 3D NAND technology in July 2016 and the world’s first 48-layer 3D NAND technology in 2015; product shipments with both technologies continue to retail and OEM customers.

Western Digital presented a technical paper on the advancement in high aspect ratio semiconductor processing that made this technology achievement possible at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). Further details can be found by visiting http://isscc.org/ 
 
Related Stories:
 
HP entry storage flash makeover aims to gives existing SMBs, startups competitive edge
 
New all-flash storage going to be game-changer: Dell
 
Western Digital presents future of hard drives in cloud era
 
A budget-friendly approach to flash storage
 
 
For more technology news and the latest updates, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Like us on Facebook.