3D nand, wd and kioxia announce 112-layer bics5 memories

Western Digital and Kioxia have officially revealed their fifth generation of BiCS NAND 3D technology, which successfully stacks 112 layers of flash memory alongside TLC or QLC technologies. This innovation is called BiCS5, and the initial chips offer 512Gb of storage.

BICS5 offers more memory speed and density in 3D NAND

This technology will not be available “in significant commercial volumes” until the second half of 2020. When it is available, it will be used in capacities of up to 1.33Tb per chip.

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When compared to Western Digital / Kioxia BiCS4 96-layer 3D NAND memories, BiCS 5 features 112 total NAND layers, offering a 16.67% layer boost with this generation. As for the storage density per silicon wafer, BiCS5 offers 40% more total bits than the company's BiCS4, a factor that will reduce the production costs per bit of NAND in the coming years.

Other design improvements have enabled Western Digital's BiCS5 to offer up to 50% more I / O performance than its predecessor, making BiCS5 faster and have a higher storage density. Not bad for a single generation NAND, though it will be some time before 112-layer NANDs become a significant part of Toshiba / Kioxia's production volume.

BiCS5 offers exactly what the market wants from NANDs, faster I / O speeds, smaller, denser chips for storage and the promise of lower production costs. All good news, except for the wait time until it is massively deployed on upcoming Western Digital and other manufacturers' products. We will keep you informed.