A Chinese memory chip maker has put rivals Micron and SK hynix on notice with claims it has self-developed technology that has enhanced its 3D NAND semiconductor’s performance by 50% while cutting power consumption by 25%.
Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), founded in 2016 and based in Wuhan, on Wednesday announced its fourth-generation NAND chips, known as X3-9070, are the first to feature 232 layers of memory cells, according to Chinese media reports. The claimed performance improvements are over its third-generation chips launched in April 2020.
The announcement said the X3-9070 is the highest bit density flash product in the company’s history, enabling 1 terabyte (TB) storage capacity in an ultra-compact mono-die footprint. The press release did not, however, state exactly how many layers of memory cells the X3-9070 chip has stacked.