China Develops High Capacity QLC 3D NAND: YMTC at 1.33 Tb
by Gavin Bonshor on April 13, 2020 11:00 AM EST
Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) has announced that it's developed its new 128-layer 1.33 Tb QLC 3D NAND memory chip, the X2-6070. The new chip is based on its Xtacking architecture which enables it to run with super high I/O while maximising the density of its memory arrays. YMTC has also unveiled its plan for a 128-layer 512 Gb TLC chip, the X2-9060, designed to meet more diverse application requirements.
We first reported on the China-based company YMTC entering its 3D NAND memory chips into production back in 2018, when it unveiled its Xtacking Architecture at the Flash Memory Summit. While it didn't disclose technical details of its announcement, it did state the Xtacking architecture has the capability to run the I/O with speeds of up to 3 Gbps. Fast forward to 2019, and it announced that it planned to start volume production of its 64-layer 3D NAND which we also reported on.
Using its Xtacking architecture at the forefront of production, both the new X2-6070 and X2-9060 feature its updated 2.0 variant which YMTC claims to bring more benefits to flash memory. Both the X2-6070 and X2-9060 are claimed to deliver up to 1.6 Gb/s of I/O performance and operate with a Vccg voltage of 1.2 V. YTMC has stated that the X2-6070 QLC based chip will be first used in consumer-grade SSDs, with the aim to then deliver its capabilities into Enterprise focused drives.
YMTC X2-6070 128-Layer QLC 3D NAND memory chip
The QLC based X2-6070 has 128-layers and more than 366 billion effective charge-trap memory cells. Each memory cell has 4-bit of data, which equates to 1.33 Tb of storage capacity. Everything is proportionate to cost, and it seems like YMTC, which is newer than most to 3D NAND stacking, could again improve its Xtacking architecture in the future.
We expect that YMTC, who is part of the Tsinghua Unigroup in China, is using the XMC fab in Wuhan China to produce its wafers for its 3D NAND. Tsinghua acquired XMC back in 2016, and while we haven't had it confirmed, it is likely to be producing its wafers at the XMC fab, which is one of China's largest semiconductor fabrication plants which also uses the Xtacking architecture.
YMTC hasn't released official specifications or data sheets about the X2-6070 QLC and X2-9060 MLC memory chips, nor has it stated when it is likely to be integrated with its controller partners (or which controllers support it).
Related Reading
- Yangtze Memory Unveils Xtacking Architecture for 3D NAND: Up to 3 Gbps I/O
- Flash Memory Summit 2018, Yangtze Memory Technology Keynote Live BlogL Unleashing 3D NAND
- YMTC Starts Volume Production of 64-Layer 3D NAND
- SK Hynix Sampling New PCIe 4.0 96L SSDs, 128L 4D NAND Enterprise SSDs
- Micron to Start Volume Production of 128-Layer 3D NAND with RG Architecture This Quarter
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
64 Comments
View All Comments
yeeeeman - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
At least something good comes out of WuhanFreeb!rd - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
Don't say that before you try it...could be deadly for your data over the long term.LiKenun - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
I don’t care where it comes from as long as I can get cheap, high-capacity, non-mechanical storage for my data. These guys are going to be a godsend by driving prices down for everyone.coburn_c - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
Congrats to China and their diligent corporate espionageairdrifting - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link
You mean like, Huawei 5G, High speed rails, DJI drones, Railgun and electric catapults? I didn't know you can steal technology from the inferior side.sorten - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link
High speed rails? LOLLiKenun - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link
To their credit, America has none. Our transportation infrastructure is simply awful with the urban sprawl and low-throughput highways.s.yu - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link
Almost incomparable. Too much autonomy of municipalities, too much citizen rights (China's land rights are the governments for example), too expensive labor, two party system, the list goes on.When Xi'an decided to build a subway, they sacrificed many ancient artifacts and heritage sites, not to mention at least dozens of graves they dug right through. Archeologists had sometimes mere days to determine the value of a site before construction must continue. Some of the apparently prominent ones were "relocated", but anybody knows that if you dismantle a relic and piece it back together it's not the same thing. In the US you'd be stuck for decades at the feasibility study for something like this.
They displaced millions to build the Three Gorges Dam, and that's just the people, imagine the land those people would've owned in the US that the government would have to acquire, simply unthinkable. California's HSR encountered immense resistance at the planning stage just because individual rights matters.
Retycint - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link
Unrelated, but have you ever taken the high speed rails in China? It's at least as good as the Shinkansen, and that's not hyperbole.Although obviously it's far easier to forcefully implement an efficient high speed rail when your government is a dictatorship
s.yu - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link
Shinkansen has to work with much worse terrain(and more urbanization) and a much denser setup of stations, and narrow gauge tracks are a historical remnant.