Micron Ships 176-Layer NAND in Mobile Solutions to Power Fast 5G Experiences

Micron Technology, Inc. has begun volume shipments of a world’s first 176-layer NAND Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.1 mobile solution.

Engineered for high-end and flagship phones, the company’s discrete UFS 3.1 mobile NAND unlocks 5G’s potential with up to 75% faster sequential write and random read performance than prior generations,⁽¹⁾ enabling downloads of 2-hour 4K movies ⁽²⁾ in 9.6 seconds.

The 176-layer NAND offers a compact design for the high capacity, small form factors required in mobile devices. This launch follows quickly on the heels of the firm’s volume delivery of PCIe Gen4 SSDs with 176-layer NAND in June, bringing high performance, design flexibility and low power consumption to professional workstations and ultrathin notebooks. Now available for smartphones, Micron’s advanced NAND technology and performance enables a more responsive mobile experience with multitasking across apps.

“5G delivers multigigabit speeds to mobile devices, and a high-performance hardware foundation is critical to powering these lightning-fast mobile experiences,” said Raj Talluri, SVP and GM, mobile business unit. “Our breakthrough 176-layer NAND supercharges smartphones with unparalleled performance, delivering rich multimedia content to consumers’ fingertips in a flash.”

The company’s 176-layer UFS 3.1 solution provides 15% faster mixed workload performance than its prior generation, enabling faster app launching and switching across multiple apps for a smoother mobile experience. Without storage as a bottleneck, users can take advantage of 5G’s speeds with the powerful combination of UFS 3.1 and the firm’s 176-layer NAND.

“Micron’s first-of-its-kind combination of UFS 3.1 and 176-layer NAND will give our HONOR Magic3 Series an edge as the first smartphone to debut with this high-performance 3D NAND solution,” said Fang Fei, president, product line, Honor Device Co., Ltd. “Users of our new flagship Honor Magic3 Series will be able to enjoy snappy, seamless multitasking across apps, fast downloads and storage supported by Micron’s industry-leading solution.”

Company’s 176-layer mobile solution features:

Improved performance: 176-layer UFS 3.1 solution brings 75% faster sequential write and 70% faster random read performance over previous generations, accelerating application performance.
Faster downloads: The up to 1,500MB/s sequential write performance translates to an ability to download a 10-minute 4K (2,160 pixel) YouTube video stream in 0.7 seconds ⁽³⁾ or a 2-hour 4K movie in 9.6 seconds.
Smoother mobile experience: As compared to its predecessor, company’s 176-layer UFS 3.1 solution and its quality of service results in about 10% shorter latency for faster response times and a more reliable mobile experience.
Improved endurance: Firm’s 176-layer mobile solution boasts up to 2x the improved total bytes written vs. its previous-generation product, ⁽⁴⁾ meaning 2x the total data can be stored without degrading device reliability and the smartphone’s life span can be extended for even the heaviest of users.

Availability of 176-layer UFS 3.1 mobile solutions
Available, the company’s 176-layer UFS 3.1 discrete mobile NAND is offered in 128, 256 and 512GB capacities.

⁽¹⁾ All comparisons with prior gens are vs. Micron’s previous-gen 96-layer UFS 3.1 storage device.
⁽²⁾ Assuming a 14GB file size per movie
⁽³⁾ Assuming a 1GB file size for the video
⁽⁴⁾ Comparison based on Micron’s previous-gen UFS 3.1 using floating-gate 96-layer NAND and the 176-layer product running with WriteBooster disabled.

Resource
Blog: World’s Most Advanced Flash Memory Goes Mobile