- SK Hynix defines a new step with 321 QLC NAND layers for PC SSDS
- Performance and efficiency improvements are before the deployment of the company and the AI server
- Consumers see high time SSDs for cheap capacity until the costs drop
SK Hynix confirmed that it started the mass production of its new Flash Nand Flash 321 -layer memory, making it the first in the industry to cross the 300 -layer threshold with QLC technology.
The company completed the development of the chip earlier in 2025 and says it plans to launch commercial products in the first half of 2026, once the validation of the customer is completed.
The chip has a capacity of 2 TB per mat, double that of previous solutions.
Energy efficiency improvements
To respond to the slower performance that is often delivered with a higher density NAND QLC, SK Hynix has widened the number of plans in the four to six chip.
This modification allows a greater parallel treatment, which improves reading and writing speeds while keeping low energy consumption.
The company says that its data transfer speeds are twice as fast compared to its previous QLC offers, with writing speeds up to 56% more quickly and reading performance has improved by 18%.
Energy efficiency during writing operations is also up more than 23%, which will be important in large data environments where energy costs are closely monitored.
Although the long-term objective is to use technology in corporate SSDs for data centers and ultra-high storage for AI servers, the company says that PC SSDS will be the first products to be shipped with 321 layers.
This means that consumers can see advantages before business customers, although the initial objective is not necessarily on low -cost and high capacity readers.
“With the start of mass production, we have considerably strengthened our high -capacity product portfolio and guaranteed cost competitiveness,” said Jeong Woopyo, NAND development manager.
“We will make a major jump forward as a full storage AI memory supplier, in accordance with the explosive growth in AI demand and high performance requirements on the data centers market.”
SK Hynix also plans to use its stacking technology, which allows up to 32 matrices in a single package, in future ultra-capacity solutions. It expects this to be particularly important in the storage markets led by AI where density and efficiency are key sales.
Although the arrival of this NAND marks a big step towards greater and more affordable storage, it is unlikely that the general public SSDs of 8 TB will arrive so early, due to high manufacturing costs, the complexity of the packaging and the validation cycles.
