WD Touts 3D NAND That's 60% Faster and 50% Higher Capacity
Western Digital this week gave a sneak peek at its BiCS 3D NAND roadmap for the next few years. As expected, the company and its partner Kioxia will continue to introduce new generations of its BiCS memory increasing per-device capacity and lowering per-bit costs.
Furthermore, the company is developing its BiCS+ 3D NAND that will substantially increase performance and density compared to regular BiCS memory to enable ultra-high-capacity SSDs with extreme performance.
The company's next step is introduction of its 6th Generation BiCS memory that will feature 162 active layers and will enable 1 Tb QLC 3D NAND memory devices with a die size of 68 mm^2. The new generation Western Digital's 3D NAND will also feature a faster I/O interface and a 60MB/s program speed, which will significantly increase performance of next-generation SSDs, particularly those mainstream drives with a PCIe 5.0 interface.
While 162 layers may not look as impressive as the 176 layers touted by other makers, Western Digital's die size will be smaller when compared to the die sizes of competitors because the company will shrink memory cell size by using a new material. As a result, the company hopes that its BiCS6 1Tb 3D QLC ICs will be easier and cheaper to produce, which will enable it to build cheaper storage devices that compete with the best SSDs on performance and pricing.
