Toshiba's qlc memory has durability equivalent to tlc

Toshiba is not going through its best moment but it is still one of the most important companies in the world of technology. The Japanese giant is one of the largest manufacturers of NAND memory worldwide and has recently announced its new quad-level NAND memory technology, better known as QLC.

Toshiba improves industry expectations on the QLC

Toshiba's QLC memory should help reduce the price / storage ratio of future devices thanks to an increase in storage density for every euro invested. However, each increase in the number of cells causes concern among users regarding performance and durability. This is because a greater number of states per cell increases the voltage steps that are applied, in the case of the SLC memory there are two voltage steps, in the MLC memory there are four voltage steps, in the TLC there are eight steps voltage and the QLC there are sixteen voltage steps.

SSD drives with TLC vs MLC memories

A greater number of voltage steps tends to make the most common errors and the longevity of the cell is compromised by the large amount of variation between its states, this implies the need to use more powerful correction techniques to avoid problems.

According to Toshiba, its new QLC memory is capable of supporting 1, 000 erase cycles, a number that is very close to that supported by current TLC memory. With this Toshiba has managed to greatly increase the 100-150 erase cycles that the industry expected for QLC memory, an achievement that shows the great effort that the Japanese has put in.

Toshiba has already started to send its partners the first samples of the new QLC memory so that they can start working as soon as possible on the new devices that implement it. Mass production is expected to start in late 2018 or early 2019.

Source: techpowerup