Scott Nelson, senior vice president of Toshiba America Electronic Components' memory business unit said: "[This announcement is] significant in that we are enabling a competitive, smooth migration to 3D flash memory – to support the storage market's demand for ever-increasing densities."
The 48 layer stacking process is said to surpass the capacity of 2D NAND flash, while enhancing write/erase reliability endurance and boosting write speeds. The 256Gbit device is expected to find application in products ranging from consumer and enterprise solid state drives (SSDs) to smartphones and memory cards.
Since announcing BiCS FLASH technology in June 2007, Toshiba has continued to optimise the technology. Looking to meet growth in demand for flash memory, the company is developing a product portfolio that focuses on large capacity applications, such as SSDs.
Nelson added: "From day one, Toshiba's strategy has been to extend its floating gate technology, which features the world's smallest 15nm 128Gbit die."
