Kioxia and SanDisk Test New Ninth-Gen BiCS9 NAND Flash
Kioxia and its mate SanDisk have started to send out samples of their ninth-gen BiCS FLASH. This new NAND flash tech is a link between the now BiCS8 and the soon BiCS10 gen. It uses a low-cost, mix method meant for big SSDs for AI tasks and mid-level storage spots where how well it works and makes good use of power matter.
The Mix Method of BiCS9
A key part of BiCS9 is its mix build, made real by CMOS glued right onto Array (CBA) tech. This way, the logic and memory cell layers are built apart under the best settings before being put together. This lets Kioxia mix old cell forms, like a 112-layer BiCS5 or 218-layer BiCS8, with new I/O sides.
The end is a chip set to hit Toggle DDR 6.0 fast rates of up to 3.6 Gb/s, with top test rates at 4.8 Gb/s.
More Speed and Power Use
Even with fewer layers, BiCS9 gives more speed than past 512 GB TLC models:
- Write Speed: Up by 61%
- Read Rate: Better by 12%
- Power Use (Write): Down by 36%
- Power Use (Read): Lower by 27%
Also, the tech gets an 8% boost in bit pack, showing strong work without more cost.
Key Spot in Kioxia's Plan
Kioxia places BiCS9 as a key move to tweak its making steps before the launch of the tougher, more pack-heavy BiCS10 build. This plan is key as AI-driven data tasks need a quicker, power-saving store to feed data to GPUs with small wait.
This way stands out from others like Samsung and Micron, who work to add more layers quick. Kioxia's mix build looks at quicker market reach and better cost save.
The Kioxia-SanDisk Team Up
The long link between Kioxia and SanDisk, which started in 2006, has been key to the BiCS series' growth. The team-up joins Kioxia's Japanese make know-how and its first flash idea with SanDisk's big spot in the store market. BiCS9 is the latest main outcome from their joint work.
