Chinese firm YMTC unveils 128-layer flash memory chip

Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd officially introduced its 128-layer flash memory chip on Monday, marking a key step in the country's efforts to grow its homegrown semiconductor sector.

YMTC said its 128-layer flash memory 3D NAND chips, a type of high-end non-volatile memory chip, has passed sample verification on the solid-state drives platform through co-working with multiple controller partners.

The chip, named X2-6070, has achieved the highest bit density, and highest capacity so far among all 3D NAND flash memory products on the market currently, YMTC claimed.

Grace Gong, senior vice-president of marketing and sales at YMTC, said in a statement that "We are able to achieve these results today because of the incredible synergy created through seamless collaboration with our global industry partners, as well as remarkable contributions from our employees."

"With the launch of Xtacking 2.0, YMTC is now capable of building a new business ecosystem where our partners can play to their strengths and we can achieve mutually beneficial results," Gong added.

Xtacking is the company's in-house developed chip architecture, and it is the basis for the company's high-end 64-layer flash memory chips, which entered volume production last year.

In its 128-layer line of products, Xtacking has been upgraded to version 2.0, which is bringing more benefits to flash memory, the company said.

"This product will first be applied to consumer-grade solid-state drives and will eventually be extended into enterprise-class servers and data centers in order to meet the diverse data storage needs of the 5G and AI era," Gong added.

YMTC is a unit of Chinese semiconductor giant Tsinghua Unigroup, and it is part of Chinese company's key push to reduce heavy reliance on foreign semiconductor industry.