China is flexing its muscles again. This could be a breakthrough
China has been trying its hand at the CPU, GPU and SSD market for a long time. Not all the results of this work are good, but it looks like something has finally worked.
There are two main types of memory in the consumer semiconductor media market – TLC and QLC. The first bones offer 3 bits per cell, the second ones 4 bits per cell. In addition, we are talking about different efficiency and production costs, and what is most important for many people – durability.
The new Chinese QLC dice are as good as TLC
Originally memory life 3D TLC NAND was defined as 1,000 to 3,000 P/E cycles. However, as materials, technology and knowledge improved, this number increased to 4,000. For comparison 3D QLC NAND it started from a much lower ceiling of 100 to 1000 P/E cycles. So the difference is colossal.
However, Chinese YMTC claims that their latest QLC chips are as good as TLC solutions. Talking about X3-6070, i.e. 128-layer 3D QLC NAND. Architecture was used here Xtacking 3.0 with 2400 MT/s interface. More importantly, the manufacturer claims that the durability of these systems reaches 4000 P/E cycles.
Of course “paper will accept everything”, and we will know the real lifespan only after some time. Not only do SSDs with YMTC X3-6070 memories have to hit the market, but it will also take the test of time and a lot of saved data. What's more the competition already has newer, even 176-layer dice.
The Chinese already use the described NAND in a consumer SSD with the designation PC41Qand its performance reaches up to 5500 MB/s. The data retention period is reportedly one year at 30°C, which is in line with JEDEC standards and comparable to other SSDs. YMTC plans to use these bones also in enterprise-class media.
