#9thgen

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For the AI Age, Samsung Starts the First Industrial Mass Production of QLC 9th-Gen V-NAND.

QLC NAND

The most recent QLC V-NAND incorporates a number of ground-breaking technologies, such as Channel Hole Etching, which allows for the greatest layer count in the double stack structure industry.

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The first QLC and TLC 9th generation V-NAND in the industry provides the best memory for a range of AI applications.

Today, Samsung Electronics, a renowned memory company, commenced commercial production of its one-terabit (Tb) QLC 9th generation vertical NAND (V-NAND).

Samsung began mass producing QLC 9th-Gen V-NAND after TLC in April, reinforcing its leadership in high-capacity, high-performance NAND flash.

Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President and Head of Flash Product & Technology SungHoi Hur said, “Kicking off the successful mass production of QLC 9th-Gen V-NAND just four months after the TLC version allows us to offer a full lineup of advanced SSD solutions that address the AI era.”

V-NAND SSD

Samsung’s QLC 9th-Gen V-NAND advantages

How to Use: Samsung’s QLC 9th-Gen V-NAND is intended for use in a variety of storage applications, especially those that need dependable and high-density data storage. It is particularly advantageous for:

AI and Machine Learning Workloads: It can store and analyze huge AI datasets thanks to its enormous capacity and fast read/write rates.

Enterprise Data Centers: QLC NAND’s larger capacity and cheaper cost per gigabyte are advantageous for data centers that manage big data, cloud storage, and artificial intelligence processing.

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Consumer Devices: Customers will benefit from quicker startup times, enhanced application performance, and more room for entertainment and gaming when using high-capacity SSDs in laptops and desktop computers.

Embedded and Internet of Things Devices: QLC V-NAND may be used in embedded systems and other IoT devices because of its durability and small size.

QLC SSD

Samsung’s QLC V-NAND technology drives advancements for the AI and data-driven future by bringing increased efficiency and cost reductions.

Starting with branded consumer goods, Samsung intends to broaden the uses of QLC 9th-Gen V-NAND. These applications will include mobile Universal Flash Storage (UFS), PCs, and server SSDs for clients, including cloud service providers.

Advance technology of QLC 9th-generation V-NAND

Samsung’s QLC 9th-Gen V-NAND combines many advances that have led to advancements in technology:

With a double stack structure, Samsung’s unmatched Channel Hole Etching technique allowed for the greatest layer count in the sector. The area of the cells and the peripheral circuits have been improved using the technical know-how from the TLC 9th-generation V-NAND, yielding an industry-leading bit density that is around 86% greater than that of the QLC V-NAND from the previous generation.

The Word Lines (WL) that operate the cells are spaced differently according to Designed Mold technology, which maintains consistency and optimizes cell properties both between and within layers. With a rise in the number of V-NAND layers, these characteristics have grown in significance. Adopting Designed Mold has increased product dependability by around 20% over earlier iterations in terms of data retention performance.Image Credit To Samsung

To reduce pointless activities, Predictive Program technology predicts and regulates changes in cell condition. Thanks to developments in this field, Samsung’s QLC 9th-Gen V-NAND has doubled write performance and increased data input/output speed by 60%.

By using Low-Power Design, data read and write power consumption was reduced by around 30% and 50%, respectively. By detecting just the required bit lines (BL), this technique cuts power consumption and lowers the voltage that drives NAND cells.

Release Date

Samsung announced mass production of its 9th generation V-NAND with quad-level cell (QLC) technology, a huge advance in AI-driven storage. The announcement was made in mid-2024, and full-scale manufacture is scheduled in Q3. Applications using AI, big data, and cloud computing are predicted to alter dramatically as a result of this.

Pricing

QLC-based NAND is cheaper than triple-level cell (TLC) NAND, although the consumer pricing is unclear.

This trend should be followed by Samsung’s 9th generation V-NAND, which will bring down the cost of high-capacity drives. The storage capacity and whether it is meant for consumer, corporate, or AI applications will determine the pricing, although industry estimates indicate it will be competitively priced in line with existing SSD products, particularly in high capacities like 2TB or 4TB models.