SK Hynix has begun to produce 3D NAND flash memory, which will be used for solid-state drives later this year. The vertically-stacked NAND flash memory from SK Hynix will improve performance and reliability of the company’s solid-state drives.

The 3D NAND memory device that SK Hynix produces in volume features 36 layers and has capacity of 128Gb. The IC [integrated circuit] is a multi-layer cell NAND flash memory product designed for various devices, including SSDs and removable storage. SK Hynix has been sampling its 3D NAND memory with customers for several quarters.

SK Hynix is also finalizing design of 48-layer triple-level cell (TLC) 3D NAND flash memory. The memory device will be mass produced in 2016, reports EETimes.

SanDisk starts high-volume production of 3D NAND flash memory about two years after its arch-rival Samsung Electronics, but around the same time as other makers of flash memory, such as Micron and Toshiba.

Unfortunately, SK Hynix has not released a lot of technical details about its 3D NAND. Some analysts believe that the company primarily needs such memory to improve its own solid-state drives.

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KitGuru Says: Samsung has managed to considerably lower prices of its advanced SSDs thanks to its 3D V-NAND memory. SK Hynix will likely do something similar since vertically-stacked NAND has a lot of advantages over planar flash memory when it comes to cost, performance and reliability.

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