SK Hynix Mass-produces 238-layer NAND... "Expanding from Mobile Supply to PC and Server"

Mass Production in May Following Last Year's Development of the World's Tallest NAND

SK Hynix has started mass production of the world's highest-layer 238-layer 4-dimensional (4D) NAND flash. Starting with mobile products, the company plans to expand its applications to PCs and servers, strengthening its NAND competitiveness.

On the 8th, SK Hynix announced that it has begun mass production of 238-layer 4D NAND and is conducting product certification processes with overseas smartphone manufacturers.

Based on the 238-layer NAND, SK Hynix has developed client solid-state drive (cSSD) solution products for smartphones and PCs, and has been mass-producing them since last month. Once smartphone customer certification is completed, the company plans to supply 238-layer NAND for mobile products.

Subsequently, the application scope of the 238-layer NAND will be expanded to PC and data center SSDs supporting PCIe 5.0 (a serial interface standard that supports high-speed data input/output). SSDs are devices that store information using NAND. They are alternatives to hard disk drives (HDDs), which store information using mechanical parts (rotating disks).

SK Hynix explained that as various products equipped with 238-layer NAND increase, it could help improve business performance in the second half of the year. Kim Jeom-su, Vice President of SK Hynix in charge of 238-layer NAND, said, "We will continue to break through the limits of NAND technology and strengthen our competitiveness" and added, "We will make a significant turnaround during the upcoming market rebound period."

SK Hynix developed the world's highest-layer 238-layer 4D NAND in August last year. Introducing the smallest chip size in the world, it improved production efficiency by 34% compared to the previous generation 176-layer NAND, meaning improved cost competitiveness. The 238-layer NAND has a data transfer speed of 2.4 gigabits (Gb) per second, 50% faster than the previous generation. Read and write performance also improved by about 20%.