Micron Technology Announces Award-Winning 34nm NAND Process to Manufacture an MLC Enterprise NAND Device

34nm NAND technology is the result of continual improvements and innovations over the last several years and has been in mass production since the fall of 2008. It is the smallest NAND production node in the world, keeping Micron well ahead of competitors, and has been the foundation for several key products over the last year:

• class-leading 32Gb MLC NAND Flash device measures just 172mm2 and enables designers to easily increase NAND storage capacity for a number of consumer and computing products, such as digital cameras, personal music players, and solid state drives.
• 16Gb SLC NAND is built on the same design as the 32Gb MLC, but true to its SLC foundations, it can deliver the ultra-high performance and endurance demanded by enterprise applications and top-end SSDs.
• Measuring an ultra-tiny 84mm2, our 16Gb MLC NAND is the smallest 16Gb in production. This device provides high-capacity storage and pushes performance levels with a high-speed synchronous (ONFI 2.1) interface. It’s a compelling solution for small form factor applications like microSDs that are designed to meet today’s demanding portable storage requirements.
• Following aggressive roadmap of shrinking process nodes, we also offer a 32Gb 3-bit MLC that’s even smaller and more cost-effective than our leading MLC device. Measuring just 126mm2, it’s suitable for applications like USB drives and MP3 players, where low cost and high density are paramount.

Rapid Advancements in NAND Process Technology
(Pictures: Micron)

Press Release:

Micron Introduces New Line of 34nm Multi-Level Cell NAND for Enterprise Storage Systems, Providing 6x the Endurance

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 2.1synchronous 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.”

Relevant Links
There are other ways to stay up-to-date on Micron news:

• Micron Innovations Blog: www.micronblogs.com
• Micron on Twitter: twitter.com/microntechpr
• Micron Pressroom: www.micron.com/media

About Micron
Micron Technology, Inc., is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions. Through its worldwide operations, Micron manufactures and markets DRAMs, NAND flash memory, other semiconductor components, and memory modules for use in leading-edge computing, consumer, networking, and mobile products. Micron’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the MU symbol.

More information about 34nm NAND Process can be found at Micron Website

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