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While other manufacturers are making 512 Gb to 1 Tb 3D NAND flash dies, Toshiba is using through-silicon vias (TSVs) to stack their dies, effectively cramming 384 to 768 layers of 3D NAND into a single chip. Toshiba announced that it was developing this capability back in 2015, and now the first products to use it will be available in 2018:
Toshiba on Wednesday introduced its first BiCS 3D TLC NAND flash chips with 512 GB and 1 TB capacities. . The new ICs stack 8 or 16 3D NAND devices using through silicon vias (TSVs) and are currently among the highest capacity non-volatile memory stacks available in the industry. Commercial products powered by the 512 GB and 1 TB packages are expected to hit the market in 2018, with an initial market focus on high-end enterprise SSDs
Stacking NAND devices to build high capacity flash memory ICs has been used for years to maximize the capacities and performance of SSDs and other solid state storage devices. In many cases, NAND makers use wire-bonding technique to stack multiple memory devices, but it makes packages larger and requires a lot of power for reliable operation. However in more recent years, Toshiba has adopted TSV techniques previously used for ASIC and DRAM devices to stack its NAND ICs, which has enabled it to shrink size of its NAND packages and reduce their power consumption.
TSVs are essentially electrodes that penetrate the entire thickness of a silicon die and connect the dies above and below it in the stack. A bus formed by TSVs can operate at a high data transfer rate, consume less power, and take up less space than a bus made using physical wires. Since 3D NAND is based on vertically stacked memory layers and has numerous vertical interconnects, so far Toshiba has not used TSVs to interconnect such devices. To wed TSV and 3D NAND, Toshiba had to develop a special 512 Gb BiCS NAND die featuring appropriate electrical conductors.
The devices both measure 14 mm × 18 mm. The 8-stack chip has a height of 1.35 mm, and the 16-stack chip has a height of 1.85 mm.
Here's another company that is cramming a lot of NAND into its packages.
Related:
Western Digital and Samsung at the Flash Memory Summit
SK Hynix Plans 72-Layer 512 Gb NAND for Late 2017
SK Hynix Developing 96 and 128-Layer TLC 3D NAND
Toshiba's 3D QLC NAND Could Reach 1000 P/E Cycles
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:47PM (6 children)
So, there's that great thing I've been doing for two years, ok? It's great, you're gonna see. And by you're gonna see, I mean, next year. You're totally gonna see next year what I told you I have been doing for a couple years. It's gonna be huge. It will be ready on day 1. Next year.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday July 19 2017, @05:20PM (3 children)
Don't be dense. It is a product that is shipping to customers:
Actually, do be dense. Be a dense storage unit for mankind.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @05:42PM (2 children)
It is a prototype that is shipping to developers.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 19 2017, @05:48PM (1 child)
The developers are customers, and the prototype is a product of Toshiba's production fab. :^)
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @10:38PM
If it is at that point look for it in 6-8 months.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 19 2017, @05:56PM (1 child)
A lot of people think Aristarchus is actually our local Donald Trump. I hereby nominate bob_super as a possible candidate!
(Score: 4, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday July 20 2017, @05:42AM
"Wow, Toshiba is really stacked!" You know, when you are famous and like the President and all, they just let you grab them by the NAND, with or without the TSVs! Because, well, aristarchus should never be confused with an ignorant real estate developer like the Donald Trump. My name will live on for centuries, but the Donald will be forgotten, totally, in a decade. As will Toshiba's innovation in this case. Try to keep a perspective, Soylentils! This is an advance, but only an incremental advance. Kind of like upgrading from Marla to Melania, if you know what I mean. More stacked!
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday July 19 2017, @06:16PM (1 child)
This product looks quite awesome. However Toshiba is shedding their memory group. If all goes well it should be fine, but I could see things get delayed during the difficulties of being purchased.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 19 2017, @06:42PM
The UHC-Silo article mentions:
That's not as good as this, but they might not be far off.
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