Micron says it will be increasing your smartphone storage space to 1TB by 2020 with 3D NAND Flash
Íf everything goes according to Flash memory chip maker, Micron’s plans, by 2020 your smartphone could have a storage capacity of whopping 1TB compared to the 16, 32 and 64GB smartphones now. Idaho, United States based Micron Technology today introduced the company’s first 3D NAND memory technology optimized for mobile devices and its first products based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.1 standard. Micron’s initial mobile 3D NAND-based 32GB solution is targeted specifically for the high and mid-end smartphone segments which make up approximately 50 percent of worldwide smartphone volume.
Micron 3D NAND-based 32GB Flash memory chips are meant for high and mid-end smartphone segment. Micron said that its mobile 3D NAND Flash gives smartphone owner unparalleled user experience that includes seamless high definition video streaming, higher bandwidth gameplay, faster boot up times, camera performance and file loading.
More than the launch of its 3D NAND based 32GB Flash memory chip, what Gino Skulick, vice president at Micron’s mobile business unit said is more important. He said that Micron aims to increase the internal storage capacity in smartphones up to 1TB by 2020 to bring it at par with PCs and laptops. But the Skulick didn’t provide a roadmap of the storage capacity it will provide in its 3D mobile flash chips or how it will achieve the 1TB Flash memory target.
What is 3D NAND Flash
3D NAND flash is a type of flash memory in which the memory cells are stacked vertically in multiple layers. Flash manufacturers developed 3D NAND to address challenges they encountered in scaling 2D/planar NAND technology to achieve higher densities at a lower cost per bit. Planar NAND flash technology uses a single layer of memory cells. As NAND manufacturers worked to shrink the memory cells, cell-to-cell interference caused a reduction in the reliability of planar NAND flash products. 3D NAND flash is suitable for the same types of business and consumer applications for which planar NAND is in use. Solid-state drives equipped with NAND flash can boost application performance and lower latency in comparison to traditional storage media such as hard disk drives and tape.
Micron already has solid competition in the form of the South Korean tech giant, Samsung in 3D NAND Flash space. Samsung is already using 3D flash chips in its handsets like its Galaxy S7 and Note 7. Those handsets have a maximum of 64GB of capacity, after which users can expand storage capacity with SD cards. Samsung has also been using 3D flash to increasing the storage capacity of its enterprise SSDs. In March, it shipped an SSD with a whopping 15.36TB of storage.
It remains to be seen as to which company actually reaches the promised 1TB internal storage memory in smartphone objective first.
About time!