Micron demonstrates leadership in NAND by shipping the world’s first 232-layer device

This week, Micron announced that it has started production of its 232-layer NAND. I had the opportunity to sit down with Jeremy Werner, corporate vice president and general manager of Micron’s storage business unit, to discuss the significance of this feat and how it addresses growing storage demands.

Micron is a leader in storage and memory, and I believe their 232-layer NAND extends this leadership to drive the performance of storage solutions. It should address the storage challenges that arise from the vast amounts of data being created in the world. Bill Cerreta, Vice President and General Manager of the Platform Business Unit at Pure Storage, also joined to share how Pure Storage addresses real-world demands with Micron’s 232-Layer NAND. Let’s start full. Below is the episode of the podcast where I sit down with Jeremy and Bill and talk about Micron’s 232-layer NAND and discuss

The world’s first 232-layer NAND

As Jeremy Werner pointed out, NAND is everywhere and all around us, from the deepest space telescopes to video game controllers. It’s in everything and it’s the fundamental way data is stored in the modern world. Since zettabytes (about a million terabytes) of data is stored in computers, data centers, and the cloud around the world, it is stored in NAND storage. A great example of how NAND has shaped the way we use computers is that smartphones wouldn’t be as small and compact as they should be without NAND.

As Werner pointed out, all new NANDs today are manufactured as 3D NANDs, except for the NAND storage needed for legacy applications. The reason is that NAND is based on wafers, which are a very expensive product.

An analogy Werner gave was with real estate in a metropolitan area. Space is at a premium in the city center, and to maximize space in the center, architects build huge skyscrapers. Similarly, building a 232-layer NAND like a skyscraper allows for higher bit density per wafer. 3D NAND has enabled Micron to scale and build taller skyscrapers effectively and more efficiently than anyone else in the industry.

Keep in mind that layers aren’t everything. Although a factory can build twice as many layers, if those layers are not as compact as the competition, it is not as dense. This is where the question of layers vs. areal density comes into play. Areal density measures how many bits fit in a square millimeter of silicon. While areal density is a better measure of a wafer’s density, that density is realized in today’s NAND innovations through layer augmentation. Werner said that inside the 232-layer NAND, Micron gets 14.6 GB in a square millimeter or about 1,000 hours of 4K video in the size of a postage stamp.

Real-world use case with Pure Storage

Pure Storage is one of the few companies that takes raw storage and creates something unique instead of using off-the-shelf storage. Bill Cerreta, Vice President and General Manager of Pure Storage’s Platform Business Unit, spoke with Jeremy Werner and me about how Pure Storage changed its approach to SSD system design about five years ago. Cerreta said he was leaving a lot of ability and performance on the table. By optimizing the firmware and moving many of the SSD’s features to the Pure Storage OS, he has been able to expose more capacity on the SSD and reduce latency for customers.

While this unique approach from Pure Storage appears to be highly successful in terms of time to market, it gives Pure Storage a competitive edge. Pure Storage can take your software designs and operating system level and plan for future generations of NAND storage. Cerreta says this unique approach to NAND software allows Pure Storage to switch to this 232-layer NAND and expose its benefits to customers much faster than its competitors.

NAND in the future

The challenge for today’s data centers comes down to computing trying to keep up with the explosion of data and storage innovations trying to keep up with computing. As more data is created, more storage is needed at high capacity with the energy efficiency to stay within budget.

I believe Micron’s 232-layer NAND helps solve many of these challenges that businesses face within the data center. It is capable of packing more data into a smaller space while improving its energy efficiency compared to previous generations. As Cerreta points out, when NAND consumes less power in the system, these systems can budget power towards components that would produce better results.

Micron is shipping its 232-layer NAND to its consumer SSDs under the Crucial brand. In the next year and a half, it will migrate all of its product lines from its 176-layer NAND to its next-generation 232-layer NAND.

Ending

Memory and storage have become critical components within the data center and computing in general. Micron is the first company in the world to begin volume production of its 232-layer NAND, and I think this is exciting news for data and storage. As more data is created every day, innovations like Micron’s 232-layer NAND meet the demand in the data center.

Incredibly, Micron has created a storage solution that can hold 1,000 hours of raw 4K footage in the size of a postage stamp. As we see Micron’s 232-layer NAND storage in solutions like Pure Storage’s storage OS, I think it could have a positive impact in the data center.

While I’d like to find fault with Micron’s product roadmap, production capacity, or technologies, it’s hard. The company was quiet for five years working while other companies talked a lot. I like where the company is now.

Note: Jacob Freyman, Moor Insights & Strategy Co-op, contributed to this article.

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