Micron starts volume shipments of 3D NAND chips-- meaning SSD storage products from both Micron and Intel might soon get a boost in capacity, performance and energy efficiency.
Current Intel consumers SSDs offer maximum capacity of 4TB, but Micron 3D NAND should allow 2.5-inch storage devices to "more than 10TB." Meanwhile portable stick-style storage devices should also get a capacity boost, specifically up to 3.5TB.
In addition 3D NAND promises "significantly higher read/write bandwidth and I/O speeds, as well as improved random read performance," together with a sleep mode able to cut power to inactive NAND even when other chips in the same die are active.
Other companies, including Samsung and Toshiba, already use 3D NAND technology. However Micron claims its "floating gate cell" architecture allows for "better performance, quality and reliability compared to competing solutions."
Intel is still to announce new SSDs, but Micron says it will release new drives by Q3 2016.