from the products-moving-to-a-new-level dept.
Macronix will begin shipping 3D NAND in 2020, with Nintendo as the first customer:
Macronix, a Taiwan-based manufacturer for special-purpose memory solutions, will start volume shipments of its own 3D NAND memory in the second half of next year. The company will become the first flash manufacturer in Taiwan to produce in-house designed 3D NAND.
Macronix will manufacture 48-layer 3D NAND memory in the second half of 2020, said Miin Wu, the chairman of the company, during a press conference dedicated to Macronix's 30th anniversary. The company then plans to start shipments of 96-layer 3D NAND in 2021 and 192-layer 3D NAND in 2022. At present, the most advanced technology used by the firm to make NAND is its planar 19 nm technology that has been in use since February, 2019.
Macronix did not disclose the organization of its 3D NAND, but since the company typically produces memory for specialized devices such as defibrillators, drones, video game cartridges, and watches, they are likely aiming for longevity and reliability here. Which these days is a rather unique offering, since most commodity flash memory is focused first and foremost on density.
One likely product will be 64 GB game cards for the Nintendo Switch.
Related: Nintendo Sells at Least 10 Million Switch Consoles in 2017, 64 GB Game Cards Delayed to 2019
Related Stories
As of mid-December, Nintendo sold 10 million Switch consoles worldwide, after around 9 months of availability. The Switch outpaced sales of most other consoles in their initial months, except for the PS4.
Some big titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (an influence on Zelda: Breath of the Wild) have been ported to Nintendo Switch. But the ability to port certain games may be hindered by the delayed release of 64 GB "game cards" (proprietary ROM cartridges) for the system:
Those wishing for 64GB Nintendo Switch game cards will have to keep waiting. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Nintendo pushed back the rollout of 64GB game cards until 2019, citing "technical issues" as the problem. Game developers get Switch cards from Nintendo, so this means that they'll have to wait to get game cards that can support big titles.
[...] Nintendo initially attempted to alleviate the storage issue with the Switch's microSD card slot, which can hold an extra 2TB of space. However, 2TB microSD cards aren't available yet, and not every microSD card is the same. Some big titles require high-speed microSD cards to run properly.
While many mobile devices and the Nintendo Switch can support up to 2 TB of microSD storage, the largest currently in production is SanDisk's 400 GB card, which currently retails for $250.
CNET: Nintendo Switch was 2017's best gadget. What does it mean for 2018?
The Verge 2017 tech report card: Nintendo
Previously: Nintendo to More Than Double Production of Switch; Success Rooted in Wii U's Failure
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 12 2019, @11:28AM (1 child)
So they can corner all electronics manufacturers possible?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday December 12 2019, @11:40AM
China Numbah One. Taiwan Numbah Two.
They are already doing it:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14841/ymtc-starts-volume-production-of-64layer-3d-nand [anandtech.com]
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/05/14/ymtc_64_layer_flash_flood/ [theregister.co.uk]
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/yangtze-memory-china-64-layer-nand-production,40318.html [tomshardware.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Thursday December 12 2019, @07:20PM (3 children)
What kind of games would use 64GB? Since my best video card is an NVidea 9800 GT I don't keep up with the new games. Are there games that use 64GB? I'm assuming these cartridges would be massively faster than a Blu-Ray. I wonder how much they'll cost.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday December 12 2019, @11:43PM (2 children)
Games only have to use more than 32 GB (the current limit for Switch cartridges) for 64 GB to be useful. Nice binary numbers are preferred for products like this, so they'll likely go straight to 64 GB. There have been plenty of games ported to Nintendo Switch from other platforms. Dual-layer Blu-ray used with PCs and recent consoles store up to 50 GB. Can you see where I'm going with this?
Here's what you wanted to know:
Red Dead Redemption 2 [gamespot.com] = ~99-105 GB.
Cyberpunk 2077 [gamesradar.com] = at least 80 GB.
Gears of War 4 and 5 [gamespot.com] = 50-120 GB.
Grand Theft Auto V [ndtv.com] = 65-76 GB.
Destiny 2 w/ Shadowkeep expansion [forbes.com] = 165 GB
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 = 101 GB
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare = 95 GB
etc.
(source [gamesradar.com])
These can vary on different platforms, and balloon in size with updates, DLC extras, and expansions, etc. Nintendo Switch ports probably need less space since they target lower resolutions.
Notice that some of these games can bust a 128 GB SSD by themselves.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday December 13 2019, @01:25AM (1 child)
Wow! I had no idea. Thanks for that extremely informative post! My hardware is way too old for those games. I still feel like I'm living it up with my Nintendo Wii (used $99) that I hacked and installed HomeBrew with USB Loader GX and every Wii game (I even have M.A.M.E., Snes9X, Wii64 and C64 emulators on it). I've got years worth of entertainment still to come from that.
I also have a used "New Nintendo 3DS XL" on the way from eBay I got (for $111.88 total) I'm going to hack. I've already downloaded over 100GB of games for it. I'll be well entertained until I can get a used Switch that Nintendo doesn't care about updating for around $100 with all the protections cracked.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday December 13 2019, @08:53AM
I think "open world" style games are pushing the envelope. And the capacity is going to lots of uncompressed audio, large textures, and 3D models.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/why-are-video-games-so-big/ [digitaltrends.com]
We benefit from stupidly complex games since it pushes up consumer demand for larger storage, RAM, CPU, GPU (16K VR at 1000 FPS, anybody?), etc.
We could see a reversal of the game size trend in the future if processing power skyrockets. Imagine procedural generation of maps/worlds combined with real-time synthesis of audio effects (like a rock of any shape hitting floors of various materials at any velocity) and even real-time synthesis of voices (virtual voice actors, impersonation of celebrities possible but likely officially restricted due to "personality rights").
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]