Micron intros new line of 34nm multi-level cell NAND for enterprise storage systems

BOISE, USA: When designing solid-state storage for enterprise applications, standard SLC NAND has been the technology of choice because of its reliability and endurance. But customers are often challenged on how to cost-effectively reach their capacity requirements. Micron Technology Inc. is meeting customers’ requirements by announcing that it has leveraged its award-winning 34nm NAND process to manufacture an MLC enterprise NAND device, which provides enterprise organizations a way to cost-effectively and reliably double their flash-based enterprise storage capacity (since MLC provides twice the capacity in the same die size as SLC).

Micron’'s new MLC Enterprise NAND device achieves 30,000 write cycles – a 6x increase in endurance when compared to standard MLC NAND. And for enterprise applications that are more performance driven, Micron today also introduced a 34nm SLC Enterprise NAND device that achieves 300,000 write cycles – a 3x increase in endurance when compared to standard SLC NAND.

Additionally, leveraging the full performance capability of NAND, Micron’s newest Enterprise NAND products also support the ONFI 2.1 synchronous interface, delivering a 4- to 5x improvement in data transfer rates when compared to legacy NAND interfaces. Micron’s 34nm Enterprise NAND portfolio includes a 32Gb MLC NAND chip and a 16Gb SLC NAND chip that can be configured into multi-die, single packages supporting densities up to 32GB MLC and 16GB SLC, respectively.

Micron is now sampling its Enterprise NAND products with customers and controller manufacturers, and is expected to be in volume production in early 2010. For further explanation on Micron’s Enterprise NAND products, visit Micron’s Innovations blog to catch a video that describes how Micron leveraged its mature 34nm NAND process to achieve these levels of reliability.

“By leveraging our mature 34nm NAND process, Micron has developed Enterprise NAND products that support customers’ high-endurance requirements. These products ensure that enterprise organizations have a highly reliable NAND flash solution – be it MLC or SLC – for design into the broader enterprise storage platform,” said Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron’s memory group.

“The use of advanced NAND flash is required to achieve broad SSD adoption in enterprise applications,” said Steffen Hellmold, vice president of business development at SandForce. “We are very excited to work with Micron and enable cost-effective, reliable, high-performance SSD solutions that support stringent enterprise lifecycle requirements.”