[Peace&Chips] The Troubled 'NAND'... Yet the SSD Business Is Still Ongoing

Increased Demand for Server SSDs Expected Due to AI Effects
"SSD Usage in Automobiles to Gradually Increase"

Samsung Electronics to Launch Large-Capacity TCL SSD Early Next Year
SK Hynix Improves Performance with 176-Layer NAND SSD

Editor's NoteSemiconductors, often called the rice of modern industry. Although it's a term we hear every day, it's hard to explain when asked. Peace & Chips will make the complex concepts and overall flow of the semiconductor industry easy to digest for you. Just bring your spoon.

These days, NAND flash is considered a burden in the memory semiconductor industry. Companies including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are all facing difficulties due to accumulating NAND inventory.

NAND is a type of memory semiconductor belonging to flash memory. Unlike DRAM, which loses information when power is cut off, flash memory retains data, making it non-volatile memory. Flash memory includes NAND and NOR flash, but currently NAND, which has advantages in miniaturization and large capacity over NOR, is mainly used. It plays a complementary role with DRAM, which is volatile memory but has faster data processing speed. NAND is mainly installed in USB drives, SD cards used in small devices, and solid-state drives (SSD).

Samsung Electronics' high-performance SSD for PCs 'PM9C1a', mass production started in January /
[Photo by Samsung Electronics]

Unlike the DRAM market dominated by three major players, the NAND market has multiple competitors. According to market research firm Omdia's statistics for the first quarter, six companies hold major shares: Samsung Electronics (34.3%), Japan's Kioxia (19.5%), U.S. Western Digital (15.9%), SK Hynix (15.1%), U.S. Micron (10.9%), and China's YMTC (3.2%). Except for Samsung Electronics, many companies have shares in the 10% range, making competition fierce. Although the NAND market situation is challenging, related businesses are still developing amid intense competition.

In particular, SSDs are a product group attracting attention in the NAND market. These products are auxiliary devices that store large amounts of data based on NAND. Compared to traditional hard disk drives (HDD), they generate less heat and noise and have relatively faster speeds, so they are replacing HDDs in PCs, laptops, and now servers. Recently, with the increase in AI demand, the data processed by servers has surged, leading to expectations that the use of related SSDs will also increase.

SK Hynix's portable SSD 'Beetle X31' launched in June /
[Photo by SK Hynix]

Market research firm TrendForce stated, "As AI models become increasingly complex, demand for server DRAM, high-bandwidth memory (HBM ? a high-performance DRAM with faster data processing speed than general DRAM), and SSDs will simultaneously increase." Currently, demand is growing mainly for DRAM, but server SSDs are expected to benefit gradually. It is also forecasted that the capacity of SSDs used in AI servers will be about twice that of general servers in the future.

Samsung Electronics has announced plans to launch a triple-level cell (TLC) based 64-terabyte (TB) SSD early next year to meet this high-capacity demand. The company is also focusing on the SSD business in the automotive market, which has emerged as one of the three major memory application areas. Richard Walsh, Vice President and Head of Memory Marketing at Samsung Semiconductor Europe, recently wrote in the company newsroom, "The use of SSDs in the automotive industry is expected to increase steadily over the next 4 to 6 years."

SK Hynix aims to improve its second-half performance by increasing sales of SSDs based on the widely used 176-layer NAND. Since May, it has been mass-producing consumer SSDs equipped with 238-layer NAND, the industry's highest layer count, and plans to apply 238-layer NAND to server SSDs in the future. SK Hynix's subsidiary Solidigm recently released a new QLC (quad-level cell) SSD, which offers greater capacity advantages compared to the mainstream TLC SSD, targeting new markets.

Western Digital introduced a console SSD for PlayStation 5 last month. Recently, it has also been adding colors to its portable SSD product line, putting considerable effort into the consumer SSD business. Given the bright long-term market outlook, we can expect to hear more news about various SSD products and businesses as the NAND market recovers.

This article is from [Peace & Chips], published weekly by Asia Economy. Click subscribe to receive articles for free.

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This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.