News Industry Spotlight
Samsung ramps production of premium memory DDR4 and announces mass production of 3-D vertical NAND flash
The company advises the 4Gb- based DDR4 has one of the fastest DRAM data transmission rates of 2,667megabits per second – a 1.25-fold increase over 20nm- class DDR3, while lowering power consumption by more than 30 percent.
Samsung Electronics Co. is now mass producing its advanced DDR4 memory, aimed at enterprise servers in next-generation data centres. The company advises, the 4Gb DDR4 devices, which use 20 nanometer process technology, come in response to current indus- try demands for 16GB and 32GB memory modules.
The company confirms this is compared to conventional DRAM of which 8GB modules using a 30nm-class process technology are still commonplace.
In next-generation enterprise servers, the use of higher speed DRAM is able to raise system level performance and can significantly lower overall power consumption . By adopting DDR4 memory tech- nology early, it could potentially help lower operational costs and improve performance.
The production of Samsung’s 20nm-class 4Gb DDR4 follows the introduction of its 50nm-class 2Gb DDR3 in 2008, resulting in this transition to DDR4 for large-scale data centres and other enterprise applications in just five years.
The technology giant has also begun mass producing its three- dimensional (3-D) Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory. Samsung advises this is a breakthrough in the current scaling limit for existing NAND flash technology.
This new technology is ideal for consumer electronics and enterprise applications, including embedded NAND storage and solid state drives (SSDs). It offers a 128Gb density in a single chip, integrating the company’s vertical cell structure based on 3-D Charge Trap Flash (CTF) technology and vertical interconnect process technology to link the 3-D cell array. By applying both of these technologies, the company claims to be able to provide over twice the scaling of 20nm-class planar NAND flash.
Samsung advises, for the past 40 years, conventional flash memory has been based on planar structures that make use of float- ing gates. As manufacturing process technology has proceeded to the 10nm-class and beyond, concern for a scaling limit arose,
due to the cell-to-cell interference that causes a trade-off in the relia- bility of NAND flash products. This also led to added develop- ment time and costs. The company’s new V-NAND responds to these challenges by achieving vertical stacking of planar cell layers for a new 3-D structure. To achieve this, Samsung revamped its CTF archi- tecture, which was first developed in 2006. In the company’s CTF- based NAND flash architecture, an electric charge is temporarily placed in a holding chamber of the non-conductive layer of flash that is composed of silicon nitride (SiN), instead of using a floating gate to prevent interference between neighbouring cells. By making this CTF layer three- dimensional, the reliability and speed of the NAND memory has improved sharply. The company advises this shows not only an increase of a minimum of two times to a maximum ten times higher reliability, but also twice the write performance over conven- tional 10nm-class floating gate NAND flash memory.
Also, one of the most important technological achievements of the new NAND is that vertical inter- connect process technology can stack as many as 24 cell layers vertically, using special etching technology that connects the
layers electronically by punching holes from the highest layer to the bottom. With the new vertical structure, Samsung claims it can enable higher density NAND flash memory prod- ucts by increasing the 3-D cell layers without having to continue planar scaling, which has become incredi- bly difficult to achieve.
According to IHS iSuppli, the global NAND flash memory market is expected to reach approximately US $30.8 billion in revenues by the end of 2016, from approximately US $23.6 billion in 2013 with a CAGR of 11 percent, in leading growth of the entire memory industry.
Samsung has also released a new NVM Express PCIe solid state drive aimed at the high-end enterprise storage market. The high-speed 1.6TB NVMe SSD provides a sequential read speed at 3,000MB/s, which allows it to process 500GB of data, which the company claims is equivalent to 100 Full HD movies at 5GB in length in less than 3 minutes. The company advises that when compared to other products with similar specifications, the new SSD is some 14 times faster than a high- end enterprise HDD for server use, and six times faster than its former high-end enterprise SSD storage. Samsung Electronics Co.
www.samsung.com
Editor’s Comment
If you visited The Gadget show Live - Christmas edition that recently took place in London then you may be thinking just how expensive Christmas is becoming in the wake of all the new ‘must have’ devices. The event played host to the launch of a range of innovative
consumer electronics with the latest in e-biking possibly topping the bill. In association with UK, electric bicycle company, Freego Wisper, the newest in economical travel brings the electrically assisted bicycle to the masses. Indeed a labour saving device and ideal for nipping around town in a green and cost effective way. Let’s hope Boris will think so too and upgrade the Barclays bikes around the city.
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In this month’s issue don’t miss our focus on the latest in microcontroller technology with a feature from Microchip, exploring how mixed-signal controllers are combining analogue and digital power conversion to achieve the best of both worlds, on p9. An update on new system architecture from Xilnix explores how interconnect technology is key for the emerging next generation of smarter systems with high-performance requirements and how the company is addressing this need. A look at how open Source Hardware is coming to be a real game changer, driven by the modern trend towards a more ‘social’ open community is explored by Mouser Electronics in our cover story exclusive on p12. We also explore the integrity of corporate identity and creating the right image in an interview special with Smiths Connectors-Hypertac as the company evolves through its rebranding initiative, on p14. Michelle Winny, Editor
Events
FIVE Farnborough Hants 12th to 13th February 2014
The UK’s largest regional manufacturing technology, electronics and subcontracting exhibition for a wide range of industry professional
For more information visit:
www.industrysouth.co.uk
NOVEMBER 2013 Electronics
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