Samsung produces world’s first 3-bit vertical NAND chip

Samsung Electronics’ three-bit vertical NAND flash memory chips. (Samsung Electronics)

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it has begun mass production of three-bit vertical NAND flash memory chips for the first time in the world to offer chips with improved data storage efficiency.

The world’s largest chipmaker in August unveiled the chip, called triple level cell, which stores three bits of data in each cell. Until recently, the three-bit technology has been applied only to planar NAND flash products.

The newly developed three-bit V-NAND has 32 layers of laminated cells, and the degree of integration is at least 30 percent higher than the 24-layer V-NAND chips.

Along with dynamic random access memory chips, NAND flash memory chips are used in smartphones, tablet PCs and other mobile devices to save data when they are turned off.

The market share for the South Korean electronics giant in NAND flash reached 30.8 percent in the April-June period, up 0.8 percentage point from a quarter earlier, the data compiled by industry tracker DRAMeXchange showed. (Yonhap)