Datacenter Trends

Micron Ships First Quad-Level Cell NAND SSD

The release aims to meet the greater cloud storage demands of AI, Big Data and business intelligence workloads.

• By John K. Waters
• 05/24/2018

Micron Technology has begun shipping the industry's first solid-state drive (SSD) built on quad-level cell (QLC) NAND technology, the company announced this week.

With the release of the Micron 5210 ION SSD, the company says it is addressing the higher-capacity needs of the "read-intensive yet performance-sensitive cloud storage demands of AI, big data, business intelligence, content delivery, and database systems."

Because Micron's QLC NAND can achieve densities of 1 terabit with its next-generation 64-layer 3D NAND structure, it is optimized to meet these demands and make SATA SSD performance and capacity more approachable.

The new drive is designed to provide 33 percent more bit density than triple-level cell (TLC) NAND. The company is aiming to address segments of the market "previously serviced with hard disk drives (HDDs)."

"This breakthrough QLC SSD will usher in a new generation of storage products that allows enterprise and cloud customers to experience the benefits of NAND flash across an expanding array of workloads that were previously relegated to slow, power-hungry hard drives," said Micron Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer Sumit Sadana in a statement.

The company made the announcement on May 21 at its annual investor event in New York.

NAND flash memory is a type of nonvolatile storage medium in which the contents are saved when the machine shuts down -- no power is needed to retain the data. The key advantage of this technology is that it can provide lower cost per bit while increasing maximum chip capacity. The result: SSD becomes competitive with HDD, which could solve a lot of problems for datacenter operators, said IDC analyst Jeff Janukowicz.

"Enterprise datacenters are constantly challenged to deliver faster, cheaper, and higher capacity storage," Janukowicz said in a statement. "For read-intensive and performance sensitive workloads, QLC enterprise SATA SSDs provide an affordable way to move enterprise applications to flash and have the opportunity to increase the addressable market for flash in the enterprise."

The new drive is available in a 2.5-inch (7mm) form factor, smaller than the traditional 3.5-inch HDD form factor. The smaller drive "reduces server sprawl by packing more performance into fewer racks, which allows data centers to save on expensive power and cooling costs," Micron said.

The Micron 5210 ION SSD is now shipping to "strategic enablement partners and customers," with general availability expected later this year. It will be available in a 2.5-inch form factor in capacities ranging from 1.92TB to 7.68TB, the company said, enabling more flash capacity per 2U chassis.

The Boise, Idaho-based company also made a joint announcement with its Santa Clara, Calif.-based partner Intel. The two companies announced production and shipment of the industry's first 4bits/cell 3D NAND technology. The new offering achieves 1 terabit density per die, the companies said, making it the world's highest-density flash memory.

The two companies also announced "development progress" on the third-generation 96-tier 3D NAND structure, which is designed to provide a 50 percent increase in layers.

"Commercialization of 1Tb 4bits/cell is a big milestone in [non-volatile-memory] history," said RV Giridhar, vice president of Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Technology Development group, "and is made possible by numerous innovations in technology and design that further extend the capability of our Floating Gate 3D NAND technology. The move to 4bits/cell enables compelling new operating points for density and cost in datacenter and client storage."