The company behind the X-NAND flash memory claims to have doubled the speed of its storage in its second generation of chips. As reported by the Blocks and Files portal, it is possible by allowing the writing of data in parallel.
In this way, memory in X-NAND can offer SLC-level performance levels from QLC flash memory. This is a positive thing because it is cheaper and comes in larger capacities.
The future may go through X-NAND memory
Neo Semiconductor's X-NAND architecture can be applied to all generations of flash memory. It consists of dividing each plane of the 3D matrix into four to 16 subplanes, each of which can be accessed in parallel, using page buffers to optimize speed. Second-generation X-NAND takes this idea and compresses it, using one plane to write to another, whereas previously it would have used three planes to write to a fourth.
Simply put, it speeds things up, and a second-generation 3D X-NAND chip can write at 3.200 MBps instead of the previous generation's 1.600 MBps. The whole set works 20 times faster than the NAND flash conventional. There are also improvements in latency, but for now no details have been given about it.
Gen 2 technology has been awarded Best in Show at this year's Flash Memory Summit, held in Santa Clara from August 2-4. According to Neo, the new technology is compatible with current manufacturing techniques without thereby increasing the manufacturing cost or the size of the die.
This award recognizes our efforts to bring to the NAND market a truly innovative technology with a wide range of capabilities that address growing performance bottlenecks in computing systems and consumer products. X-NAND Gen-2, which doubles the performance of X-NAND Gen1, allows customers to achieve SLC-like performance with higher capacity, lower cost QLC memory. X-NAND Gen2 incorporates zero-impact design and architectural changes that do not increase manufacturing costs, while delivering dramatic performance and latency improvements.
Andy Hsu, Founder and CEO of Neo Semiconductor
Source: TechRadar
