Kioxia Unveils 9th Gen BiCS FLASH 512Gb TLC and Industry-First 245.76 TB NVMe SSD for AI Workloads

Semiconductor memory leader Kioxia started sample shipments of 512Gb Triple-Level Cell (TLC) memory devices using its 9th generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology, with mass production planned for fiscal year 2025. These devices, designed for low- to mid-level storage capacities, target applications requiring high performance and power efficiency, including enterprise SSDs optimized for GPU efficiency in AI systems. 

The 9th generation BiCS FLASH 512Gb TLC, built on a 120-layer stacking process using 5th generation BiCS FLASH and advanced CMOS technology, offers a 61% improvement in write performance, 12% in read performance, 36% better power efficiency during write operations, and 27% during read operations compared to Kioxia’s 6th generation BiCS FLASH 512Gb TLC. It supports a Toggle DDR6.0 interface for 3.6Gb/s data transfer speeds, with up to 4.8Gb/s under demonstration conditions, and achieves an 8% increase in bit density through planar scaling advancements. Kioxia employs CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) technology to integrate existing memory cell and CMOS technologies, aiming to reduce production costs while enhancing performance.

Kioxia is also pursuing a 10th generation BiCS FLASH with more memory layers to address future demand for larger-capacity, high-performance solutions. The 9th generation product lineup will vary based on...