Micron Will Manufacture Octa Level Flash

[AlphaAtlas]

Update: Micron on Making Octa Level Flash - Nope!

WCCF reports that Micron plans to introduce octa-level flash in Q1 or Q2 2019. As opposed to carrying a single bit of information like old SLC SSDs, or two bits like common MLC drives, octa level flash cells can each hold a byte of information. Tri-Level Cell flash is relatively new, and Micron introduced QLC flash in May of last year, but "OLC" flash should significantly increase the storage capacity of Micron's solid state drives. As WCCF points out, the term "OLC" didn't even exist on the public-facing part of the internet before their article went up, but they didn't mention anything about OLC's endurance, data retention or performance specifications compared to previous gen flash.

The general consensus seems to be as follows: there will be a NAND shortage once OLC is introduced, leading to higher prices which will eventually normalize into pricing that is lower than the level it started from. To understand how the markets will respond to OLC, we need to look at the major factors that were involved with the QLC crash: namely, the flash and dram pricing oversupply, Micron’s buyback of 5 billion of their stock and the introduction of QLC. Keeping this in mind, when the technology swap occurs, there will be a quarter two where the tech is short supplied, this will be followed by normalization and their profits going up, followed by the price of the stock gaining significant upwards pressure (ceteris paribus!). After Micron rolls out its Octa-Level Cell NAND, there *will* be a gap where the supply isn't enough to meet demand, there usually always is, but then as the manufacturer eventually transitions its lines to the new tech, the situation improves dramatically.

 

[Grebuloner]

I can only imagine that this will be a WORM solution unless an Optane/DRAM-level endurance breakthrough is made in the land of NAND.

 

[serpretetsky]

Maybe I misread something, is this article claiming that Micron is skipping 5/6/7 bits per cell and going to straight to 8? Doesn't that require 256 voltage levels to differentiate on each logic level on each cell?

 

[Sulphademus]

Is QLC not slow enough?

 

[Comixbooks]

They really need to up their QC along the lines of what Samsung can do though these drives will probably be close to 999.00 each.

 

[pcgeekesq]

I don't believe it. It's just a rumor right now.
If it is true, I won't be surprised if it's something like 6/8 encoded (i.e.storing 6 bits in 256 analog levels as an 8--bit Hamming code)
And regardless, I won't buy it if/when it comes out:
bottom-of-the-performance-barrel technologies aren't [H]ard.

 

[DejaWiz]

Hopefully this gives good endurance and speeds over TLC and QLC.

They really need to up their QC along the lines of what Samsung can do though these drives will probably be close to 999.00 each.

I was under the impression that Micron/Crucial QC is already pretty stout, right up there with Samsung and Intel.

 

[ChoGGi]

I thought more levels meant less endurance, but better storage density?

 

[1_rick]

Maybe I misread something, is this article claiming that Micron is skipping 5/6/7 bits per cell and going to straight to 8? Doesn't that require 256 voltage levels to differentiate on each logic level on each cell?

No, you didn't misread, and yes, that's what it means.