Micron Mass Produces 232-Layer NAND, New SSDs

On April 16th, Micron Technology announced the launch of mass production and shipment of its advanced 232-layer QLC NAND flash memory chips across selected countries and regions. Micron's sub-brand, Crucial, is now producing solid-state drives (SSDs) featuring these chips for enterprise customers and providing samples to OEM manufacturers.

The 232-layer QLC NAND chip delivers industry-leading storage density and performance, boasting a 28% increase in bit density compared to major competitors and an I/O speed of 2400MT/s, a 50% improvement over Micron's previous 176-layer QLC NAND. Read performance has also been enhanced by 24%.

Additionally, Micron has introduced the Micron 2500 NVMe series, the world's first consumer-grade SSD featuring 232-layer QLC NAND technology. Available in capacities of 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB, it is the industry's first consumer-grade SSD with QLC NAND chips exceeding 200 layers.

Micron highlights that this new product surpasses similar products based on TLC and QLC chips in terms of user experience and sets a new standard for storage in everyday PC applications and computing tasks. The Micron 2500 NVMe series SSD excelled in PCMark 10 benchmark tests, achieving average scores 45% higher than competitors.

The Micron 2500 NVMe series SSD offers exceptional performance, including a maximum sequential read speed of 7.1GB/s, which approaches the theoretical limit of the PCIe Gen4 interface. In terms of durability, Micron's 232-layer QLC NAND exhibits robust endurance. Even the smallest 512GB Micron 2500 SSD supports downloading 13 4K movies daily for three years, with a lifespan rating of 200TBW.

The Micron 2500 series SSD comes in three form factors: 22x30mm, 22x42mm, and 22x80mm. The largest 2TB model provides a lifespan of 600TBW and sequential write speeds of up to 6000MB/s.