Micron starts shipping denser QLC SSD to select customers

Micron and Intel unleash QLC NAND flash that can store 4 bits per cell. Micron starts shipping a 2.5-inch QLC enterprise SATA SSD to select customers and targets fall for general availability. Micron Technology Inc. has started shipping enterprise solid-state drives with new high-density QLC 3D NAND flash technology it jointly developed with Intel. The new Micron 5210 ION quad-level cell (QLC) SSD, with a raw capacity up to 7.68 TB, uses 64-layer 3D NAND flash that can store 4 bits of data per memory cell. The QLC 3D NAND technology supplies a 33% boost in density over the triple-level cell (TLC) 3D NAND that is becoming pervasive across the industry, according to Micron. The new QLC SSD is shipping to select customers now and is due to become generally available in the fall. Micron and Intel claimed to be the first flash chipmakers to ship QLC NAND, although competitors have also been working on QLC technology. Toshiba Memory Corp. said in June 2017 it was sampling QLC 64-layer 3D NAND flash devices to SSD and SSD controller vendors. Toshiba's NAND partner, Western Digital, chimed in a month later with news about its technology on 3D NAND that stores 4 bits per cell. "For the past year, there's been a lot of talk about it. We know that everybody's been sampling drives. But nobody's actually sold one and shipped a production-caliber product," said Steve Hanna, senior product marketing manager at Micron. "The 5210 ION SSD is the first drive that's being sold -- not sampled."