Business
SK hynix Begins Mass Production of 321-Layer QLC NAND Flash
SK hynix Inc. (or 'the company', www.skhynix.com) announced today that it has completed development of its 321-layer 2Tb QLC[1] NAND flash product and has begun mass production. This achievement marks the world's first implementation of more than 300 layers using QLC technology, setting a new benchmark in NAND density. The company plans to release the product in the first half of next year following completion of global customer validation.
About this update from Sk Hynix Inc.
[{"type":"list","items":[{"val":[{"type":"text","content":"Development of the industry's highest-density QLC product completed, commercial launch scheduled for the first half of next year following completion of customer validation","length":176,"tagName":"p"}]},{"val":[{"type":"text","content":"Expansion of independent operation units ("planes") enables simultaneous large capacity and high performance, optimized for ultra-high-capacity eSSDs for AI servers","length":174,"tagName":"p"}]},{"val":[{"type":"text","content":"Company to broaden cost-competitive, high-capacity product lineup in response to rapidly growing AI demand and high-performance requirements","length":140,"tagName":"p"}]}],"tagName":"ul","bulletedList":true,"length":490,"olType":false},{"type":"text","content":"SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SK hynix Inc. (or 'the company', www.skhynix.com) announced today that it has completed development of its 321-layer 2Tb QLC[1] NAND flash product and has begun mass production. This achievement marks the world's first implementation of more than 300 layers using QLC technology, setting a new benchmark in NAND density. The company plans to release the product in the first half of next year following completion of global customer validation.","length":511,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"To maximize the cost competitiveness of its new product, SK hynix developed a 2Tb device with double the capacity of existing solutions. To address potential performance degradation in large-capacity NAND, the company increased the number of planes[2], independent operation units within a chip, from 4 to 6. This enables greater parallel processing and significantly enhances simultaneous read performance.","length":407,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"As a result, the 321-layer QLC NAND delivers both higher capacity and improved performance compared to previous QLC products. Data transfer speed has doubled, write performance has improved by up to 56%, and read performance has improved by 18%. In addition, write power efficiency has increased by more than 23%, strengthening competitiveness in AI data centers where low power consumption is critical.","length":403,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"The company plans to apply its 321-layer NAND first to PC SSDs, before expanding to enterprise SSDs (eSS...