South Korean chipmaker SK hynix said Monday it has begun mass production of the industry’s first quadruple-level cell-based 321-layer NAND flash memory chips, designed to meet the high-performance demand of the AI sector.

“We have once again broken through technological limitations by becoming the world’s first to implement NAND with more than 300 layers using QLC technology,” the company said, adding the product marks the highest density for NAND.

SK hynix said it plans to target the AI data center market, with the product expected to be released in the first half of next year following global customer validation.

NAND flash is a type of non-volatile memory that stores data without power. It is classified by how many bits of information can be stored in a single cell: a single-level cell stores 1 bit of data, multi-level cells store 2 bits, triple-level cells store 3 bits, quadruple-level cells store 4 bits and penta-level cells store 5 bits. The more bits stored per cell, the more data can be packed in the same area.

The new chip doubles the storage capacity of its predecessor to 2 terabits to maximize cost competitiveness. Higher capacity NAND typically faces challenges with slower data processing, but SK hynix said it expanded the number of planes — independent operating units within a chip — from four to six, allowing more parallel operations.

As a result, the latest product doubled the data transfer speed compared with previous QLC offerings, improving writing and reading performance by 56 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Power efficiency for data writing also rose by 23 percent, making it suitable for AI data centers where low energy use is critical.

SK hynix plans to apply the 321-layer NAND to solid-state drivers for PCs first before expanding to data centers and smartphone products. The company also plans to use its proprietary packaging technology to stack 32 NAND chips at once, to double the integration density and target the ultra-high-capacity enterprise SSDs for AI servers.

“With the start of mass production, we have significantly strengthened our high-capacity product portfolio and secured cost competitiveness,” said Jeong Woo-pyo, head of NAND development at SK hynix.

“We will make a major leap forward as a full-stack AI memory provider, in line with the explosive growth in AI demand and high-performance requirements in the data center market.”

By: DocMemory
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