Ninth generation NAND flash technology SSD begins volume shipment

Micron Technology, Inc. is shipping its ninth generation (G9) TLC NAND in SSDs, making it the first in the industry to attain this milestone. Micron G9 NAND features the industry's highest transfer speed of 3.6GB/s, providing unsurpassed bandwidth for reading and writing data. The new NAND allows best-in-class performance for AI and other data-intensive use cases from personal devices and edge servers to enterprise and cloud data centres.

"The shipment of Micron G9 NAND is a testament to Micron's prowess in process technology and design innovations," said Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of Technology and Products at Micron. "Micron G9 NAND is up to 73% denser than competitive technologies in the market today, allowing for more compact and efficient storage solutions that benefit both consumers and businesses."

The NAND uses the industry's fastest NAND I/O speed to fulfil the high-throughput needs of data-centric workloads, delivering 50% faster data transfer than any NAND currently shipping in an SSD. Micron G9 NAND also provides up to 99% higher write bandwidth and 88% better read bandwidth per die than currently available competitive NAND solutions. These per-die benefits translate to performance and energy efficiency gains in SSDs and embedded NAND solutions.

Like its previous-generation NAND, the latest device fits in a compact 11.5mm x 13.5mm package, using 28% less space than competing products. This makes it the smallest high-density NAND available. Higher density in a smaller footprint maximises design options for diverse use cases.

"For the third generation in a row, Micron has led the industry in introducing innovative, leading-edge NAND technology. Products integrating Micron G9 NAND will provide demonstrable performance benefits over competitive offerings," said Sumit Sadana, executive vice president and chief business officer at Micron. "Micron G9 NAND will serve as a foundation for storage innovations, delivering value for customers across all end markets."

The Micron 2650 NVMe SSD incorporates the cutting-edge G9 TLC NAND to deliver a best-in-class user experience for everyday computing that surpasses competitors in PCMark 10 testing.

"Nearing theoretical saturation levels for PCIe Gen4, the Micron 2650 SSD uses our new G9 NAND to push the boundaries of what a value TLC client SSD can achieve," said Prasad Alluri, Micron's vice president and general manager of Client Storage. "Delivering up to 38% higher PCMark 10 benchmark scores than competitive solutions, this drive is set to redefine the user experience for this class of SSD."

"AI advancements are increasing the data generated and driving the need for more storage, leading customers to require better performance to keep pace with AI," said Jeff Janukowicz, research vice president of IDC's Solid State Drives and Enabling Technologies. "SSDs like the Micron 2650, which benefit from the latest generation NAND innovations, will be essential to a broad range of users from businesses to individual consumers."

The SSD offers class-leading reliability and features performance-improving accelerated caching for faster write performance, courtesy of its Dynamic SLC Cache. The SSD provides real-world saturation performance for PCIe Gen4, with up to 7,000 MB/s sequential read. Compared to the competition, it delivers best-in-class performance with up to 70% better sequential read, up to 103% better sequential write, up to 156% better random read, and up to 85% better random write. These impressive figures underscore the company's commitment to pushing the boundaries of technology and delivering unparalleled performance to our customers.

Available in the Micron 2650 SSD for client OEMs, G9 NAND is also in qualification with customers in component form and a consumer-based Crucial SSD.