Samsung sent over an announcement early Thursday morning revealing that it has begun mass producing a 128-Gigabit (Gb), 3-bit multi-level-cell (MLC) NAND memory chip using 10nm-class process technology, or rather, a process technology node somewhere between 10-nm and 20-nm. These chips will beef up capacities of future high-density memory solutions like SSDs and embedded NAND storage.

"By introducing next-generation memory storage products like the 128 Gb NAND chip, Samsung is extremely well situated to meet growing global customer needs," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Device Solutions Division, Samsung Electronics. "The new chip is a critical product in the evolution of NAND flash, one whose timely production will enable us to increase our competitiveness in the high density memory storage market."

Not only does Samsung's 128 Gb NAND flash boast the industry's highest density, but the highest performance level of a 400 Mbps (Megabits-per-second) data transfer rate based on the toggle DDR 2.0 interface. Samsung said it will use this new memory to expand on its supply of 128 GB memory cards, and to manufacture SSDs beyond the 500 GB capacity.

"Samsung started production of 10nm-class 64 Gb MLC NAND flash memory in November last year, and in less than five months, has added the new 128 Gb NAND flash to its wide range of high-density memory storage offerings," the company said. "The new 128 Gb chip also extends Samsung’s 3-bit NAND memory line-up along with the 20nm-class 64 Gb 3-bit NAND flash chip that Samsung introduced in 2010. Further, the new 128 Gb 3-bit MLC NAND chip offers more than twice the productivity of a 20nm-class 64 Gb MLC NAND chip."

20nm-class means a process technology node somewhere between 20-nm and 30-nm, the company noted.

On Thursday Samsung said that demand for high-performance 3-bit MLC NAND flash and 128 Gb high storage capacities has been rapidly increasing, driving the adoption of SSDs with more than 250 GB data storage, led by the Samsung SSD 840 Series. The company will continue to accelerate the growth of the premium memory market, and introduce "leading-edge" SSDs and embedded memory storage solutions with high-quality features.

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