Micron Technology Inc. has announced the mass production of its 232-layer QLC NAND flash memory, which is currently being shipped to enterprise storage customers and sampled to original equipment PC manufacturers. The latest technology offers improved performance for a variety of storage use cases, including mobile, client, edge, and data center storage.
Micron’s 232-layer QLC NAND is more compact, allowing for thinner and lighter devices, and has a higher bit-density with NAND I/O speeds of 2400 MT/s, a 50% improvement over the previous generation. It also provides better read and programming performance over its predecessor.
The Micron 2500 Client SSD integrates the 232-layer QLC NAND to enhance everyday computing and improve the PC user experience. It has demonstrated superior PCMark 10 benchmark results, outperforming average scores in the value SSD segment. Micron anticipates that the 2500 SSD will accelerate QLC adoption in PCs due to its performance and value proposition.
The 2500 SSD offers up to 7.1 GB/s sequential read speeds, surpassing both TLC-based NAND and QLC-based NAND SSDs in the value segment. The accelerated caching feature enables faster read and write performance in various applications. The 232-layer QLC NAND also provides endurance to support multiple 4K movie downloads per day for three years, even in smaller capacity SSDs like the 512GB option.
Available in different form factors and capacities ranging from 512GB to 2TB, the Micron 2500 SSD is suitable for a variety of devices, from handheld gaming devices to workstations. The single-sided design of these SSDs allows OEMs to integrate them into systems of varying sizes and specifications, offering flexibility and performance for a wide range of devices.
In conclusion, Micron’s new line of QLC NAND flash memory offers improved performance across various storage use cases while providing endurance capabilities that make it ideal for everyday computing use cases such as gaming or workstation use cases where multiple files need to be accessed quickly.