Samsung Begins Mass Production Of 2nd-Gen V-NAND Flash Memory Destined For Consumer Storage

Samsung announced that it is putting its second generation of Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory into mass production, and unlike the enterprise-facing first-gen V-NAND products, this new glut of storage is aimed at high-end consumer storage.

This generation features 32-layer 3D V-NAND, which is a step up from the older generation’s 24 layers, although Samsung says that it can use essentially all the same manufacturing equipment, which saves a bundle on cost.

Samsung V-NAND

This isn’t just theoretical stuff, though; Samsung is releasing a lineup of consumer SSDs with the technology in capacities of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, a 1TB. The company boasts that the 3D V-NAND SSDs last roughly twice as long and burn up 20% less power than traditional 2D MLC NAND drives.