Samsung begins mass production of 3D V-NAND memory of 8th generation - for SSD with PCIe 5.0 and speed 12.4 Gbytes/s

Samsung has announced the start of mass production of 3D V-NAND TLC flash memory chips of new, 8th generation, writes Tom's Hardware portal.
The new chips have a capacity of 1 Tbit (128 GB) and presumably consist of 236 layers, although Samsung does not specify this aspect.
The manufacturer only calls the novelty flash memory with the highest bit density in the industry.Image source: SamsungFlash memory chips Samsung 3D V-NAND TLC 8th generation can provide transfer speeds of 2400 MT / s and in combination with advanced controllers can be used in the consumer solid-state drives with PCIe 5.0 interface.
According to Samsung, such SSDs will offer data transfer rates in excess of 12.4 Gbytes/sec.Samsung claims that the use of new manufacturing technology has made it possible to get more memory from a single silicon wafer - an increase of 20 percent compared with previously produced flash memory chips of the same capacity.
This will ultimately result in lower manufacturing costs, and could potentially mean cheaper SSDs for consumers.Details on the architecture of the new 8th generation 3D V-NAND TLC chip have not been disclosed by the company.
According to Tom's Hardware, like other manufacturers, Sasmung gets memory with more than 200 layers by stacking 128-layer crystals on top of each other.
During the \"lapping\" process some of the layers get lost, which does not allow for the ideal of a 256-layer 3D NAND chip, but nobody stops you from striving for it.
So earlier this year, Micron introduced 3D NAND chips with 232 layers, and SK hynix - with 238 layers.About the first products based on the new flash memory chips Samsung also does not say anything yet.

Samsung and TSMC are facing a ban on the sale of their components and electronics in the United States

The US International Trade Commission (USITC) intends to launch an investigation against Samsung and TSMC related to alleged infringement of the companies' patent rights related to chips and mobile devices based on them.
Source image: SamsungThe USITC said the agency is launching an investigation based on a complaint filed in September by New York-based Daedalus Prime LLC.
The complaint alleges a possible violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, adopted to protect U.S.
businesses from foreign competitors.
The complaint is reportedly related to chips manufactured by Samsung using 14nm and newer technologies as well as chips manufactured by TSMC using 16nm and smaller technology.
The investigation will also cover smartphones, tablets and smart watches that use such semiconductors.
In other words, there could be a huge array of cutting-edge electronics involved.
In fact, the lawsuit demands to block the import and sale of all the patent-infringing products mentioned in the complaint.
A separate complaint is reportedly filed by the same company against Qualcomm.According to media reports, Daedalus Prime is a classic patent troll, owning a number of rights to products or processes without any intention of manufacturing or implementing them.
Such companies make money by licensing out technologies they have acquired in various ways or by filing lawsuits.
The case in question is Intel technology, the rights to which Daedalus Prime acquired earlier this year.Apparently, so far, these are only a few of the investigations initiated by the USITC at Daedalus Prime's initiative.
It is assumed that the company intends to make technobusinesses pay for the use of technologies, once patented by Intel - otherwise they will be threatened with a ban on the import of electronics in the United States.
However, while the USITC said that it had not yet made any decisions related to these complaints.
The agency intends to review the materials and evidence and establish the violation of Section 377 in the manner prescribed by law.Meanwhile, a few months ago, Intel announced the availability of another batch of about 5000 of its patents.
These are technologies whose rights have not yet expired, but which are no longer cutting edge.
Nevertheless, they can still bring Intel some income.

Memory chip makers are struggling to cope with lower demand and falling prices

As the price of electronic components dropped for months, major memory chip makers, including Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology, issued gloomy forecasts and lowered already low estimates for upcoming profit margins.
Other companies announced plans to cut production to avoid further market saturation.
Top company executives and industry analysts don't expect the price decline to end, or even slow, until the middle of next year.Image source: skhynix.comMemory chips used in smartphones, PCs and servers serve as a key health indicator for the semiconductor industry, and there has been a shift from pandemic-driven growth to a sharp drop in demand.
Between July and September, average contract prices for the two major memory types, DRAM and NAND, fell 15 percent and 28 percent, respectively, TrendForce analysts calculated.
With the accumulation of excess inventory, this trend will remain relevant in the fourth quarter of the current and the entire next year, and only by the end of 2023 should we expect a slowdown or even complete cessation of negative dynamics.Samsung, the world's largest memory chip manufacturer, recently reported that its operating profit for the third quarter, according to preliminary data, fell by 32%.
Its U.S.
competitor Micron in late September has not presented a positive report, and the forecast for the current quarter was quite restrained.
SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip market by revenue, is poised to report a 40 percent year-over-year drop in revenue, FactSet analysts believe.Memory chip prices began falling late last year.
Compared to other semiconductor components, they are less differentiated, so demand fluctuations are particularly acute here.
Memory accounts for 27% of the semiconductor industry's revenue, which will be $619 billion by 2022, Gartner analysts say -- the market also includes processors and image sensors, and the biggest players are Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron and Intel.
In general, the industry with the arrival of the pandemic showed sharp growth, but this year the situation has changed: powerful negative factors were inflation and geopolitics, which, in turn, collapsed demand for PCs, smartphones and gaming devices.Image source: kioxia.comAfter the memory chips segment, other areas of the electronic components market begin to show negative dynamics: AMD reported that revenues for the third quarter will be much lower than expected.
Stock market also demonstrates pessimism: the day before AMD shares lost 13% of their value, NVIDIA securities fell by 7%, and Micron - more than 3%.
Another negative factor was also another sanctions imposed by the U.S.
on China.
However, there is a way to stop the decline - to reduce production, and it has already resorted to the Japanese Kioxia, which promised in October to reduce the output of memory chips by 30%.Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra recently said that the company will reduce production costs and in the short term will reduce supplies, although in the next decade, the memory market will still be ready for significant growth.
The company's capital investment for the current fiscal year will be $8 billion, and this is 30% lower than the year before.
At the same time in the long term the industry still expects growth - the same Micron is preparing to spend up to $100 billion on a new DRAM plant in New York State.
Intel, Samsung, and TSMC are also considering large investments.
However, one of Samsung top managers recently noted that the company's policy does not include intentional production cuts, and there is no need to abandon this strategy so far.
SK Hynix does not give a direct answer to a similar question, but says it is ready to pursue a flexible policy depending on market trends.

Samsung DRAM-memory sales declined again and will continue to fall until the end of the year

Samsung Electronics has reported a decline in DRAM RAM sales in the first three months of this year - the trend has continued for the second consecutive quarter.
The reason was a number of negative factors.
Nevertheless, the manufacturer manages to maintain a leading position in the relevant market.Image source: Samsung According to analysts from Omdia, in January-March Samsung DRAM-memory sales revenue amounted to $10.34 billion, $ 9 million less than in the three months prior to that.
However, this is the second quarter in which the decline in sales - according to the magazine Business Korea, DRAM sales fell by 9% to $10.5 billion in the last quarter.At the same time, Samsung has maintained its leadership status in the global DRAM market, the company's share of 42.7%.
Samsung's revenue decline in the sector was held against a cyclical decline in DRAM-memory prices, a process exacerbated by events in Ukraine and the disruption of the supply of some products from China due to health restrictions related to outbreaks of COVID-19.DRAM prices are steadily decreasing since October last year.
SK hynix, which ranks second in this market, sold $6.56 billion worth of DRAM modules in the first quarter, down $871 from October through December.
At the end of the first quarter, the company's market share decreased from 30.1% to 27.1%.The third player - American Micron Technology - on the contrary, increases sales.
In the first quarter, its revenues from DRAM sales grew by $575 million to $6.03 billion, and its market share grew from 22.1% to 24.8%.Global DRAM sales in the first quarter of this year totaled $24.25 billion - industry revenues are falling for the second consecutive quarter after they reached a record $26.24 billion in July-September last year.
Meanwhile, industry experts draw a gloomy picture for the DRAM market in the second half of this year, predicting a 10% drop in prices amid rising inflation and the possibility of recession in the world's leading economies.
At the same time, back in January of this year, Samsung predicted a possible increase in DRAM prices - forecasts did not come true.

Samsung's own 3nm processors won't make their way into Samsung smartphones until 2024

According to some reports, in the generation of Galaxy S23 smartphones that will debut in early 2023, Samsung Electronics will completely abandon the use of internally developed Exynos processors in favor of Qualcomm 4nm components, which will be produced by TSMC.
Only a year later, 3nm Samsung processors will have a chance to fit in smartphones of this brand.Image source: Samsung ElectricSuch as mentioned earlier, the \"first wave\" of 3nm chips produced by Samsung Electronics will be intended for Chinese developers of specialized gas pedals used in the mining of cryptocurrencies.
It was their production in small quantities was established at the pilot line in the Korean Hwasong by the end of last quarter.
For its own needs, as explained by Business Korea, Samsung Electronics will use a second-generation 3-nm process, which will be mastered only next year.
The company will begin producing its own mobile processors using this processor by early 2024, at which point they will be able to fit into Samsung smartphones.
It is possible that production of Samsung's 3-nm processors will be set up at facilities in Pyeongtaek because the production capacity at Hwaseong is limited in terms of scaling capacity.
Rival TSMC will set up mass production of 3-nm chips only by the end of this year, but it is not certain that in its case the start will be as protracted, so it is premature to talk about a clear advantage of Samsung Electronics in terms of timing.

A lawsuit has been filed against Samsung that could negatively affect the entire Android smartphone industry

K.
Mirza LLC, which is essentially a patent troll with licenses from major companies and scientific organizations, has filed a lawsuit against Samsung, accusing the South Korean smartphone maker of using a feature that allows algorithms to predict the remaining battery life of a gadget.
The process could have an impact on the entire Android smartphone industry.Image source: SamsungThe lawsuit was filed on May 20 - indicating that this widely used feature in Android smartphones is actually developed by the Dutch research institute Nederlandse Organisatie voor Togepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoe (TNO).According to the statement K.
Mirza, the feature provides \"a comprehensive mechanism for real-time prediction of the remaining battery life of a mobile device like a smartphone.
\"The company emphasizes that the prediction is based on algorithms that analyze user behavior.
Estimating the remaining battery life based on an analysis of user behavior is more accurate than predictions based on tests conducted during the development of devices.The lawsuit mentions Samsung's use of the technology with \"earlier versions of the Android OS.
It is likely that a different algorithm is used with newer versions of the OS, so the latest Android devices are probably not affected by the problem.That said, Samsung is not the only company using a similar technology - similar mechanisms are used in Xiaomi smartphones and Google Pixel series models.
It is possible that the lawsuit against Samsung is only a trial balloon, and, if successful, some claims may be made against other smartphone manufacturers.

Produce next-generation Tensor chips for Google Pixel 7 will be Samsung on the 4-nm processor

South Korean media again published information that Google will order the production of the next-generation Tensor single-crystal platform (Cloudripper GS201) from Samsung.
It is expected that the chipset will be used in smartphones Google Pixel 7 series.Image source: GoogleThe specifications of the new mobile platform is still known very little.
The new chip is expected to use Samsung's 4-nm process and will use PLP (panel-level packaging) - a fairly rare variant that uses a square wafer instead of a round one in chip production, reducing waste and production costs.The current, first-generation Tensor chipset, codenamed Whitechapel, is also produced by Samsung according to the 5-nm LPE process.
The model is famous for its unusual architecture, involving the use of two large cores Arm Cortex-X1 - most mobile platforms have either one such core, or none at all.Image source: ULVACGoogle said that the use of two cores X1 is more effective for constant loads of \"medium\" level, with \"heterogeneous\" calculations, including, for example, providing the camera viewport - during the work involved several heterogeneous processes.According to some reports, Samsung will begin production of new Tensor in June, and the release This is consistent with the traditional timing of the Made By Google event, during which the Pixel series flagships are usually presented.
It is possible that Samsung will produce server chips for Google as well.
Last year, the company announced a large recruitment of specialists to develop custom cloud and server semiconductors, although there were rumors that it would do these tasks together with Intel.While most users care little about the question of who exactly produces the new chipsets, the news may indirectly indicate some characteristics of semiconductors.
Samsung's 4nm process was used to produce the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, but an improved version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus is already being produced using a more advanced 4nm TSMC process - the new version offers lower power consumption and some performance gains over Samsung's technology.
If the flagship Qualcomm 2023 will be produced exactly by TSMC, and, according to rumors, this will be the case, the less perfect mobile platform manufacturing process for Pixel 7 will give Snapdragon some head start, other things being equal, but in order to assess the final performance of competing chipsets, we will have to wait for the winter premiere of Qualcomm.

Apple and Samsung continued to certify equipment in Russia, despite leaving the country

Despite earlier decisions to suspend operations in Russia, Apple and Samsung continued to apply for product certification.
These certificates allow them to sell equipment throughout the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), but experts believe that the manufacturers are interested in resuming deliveries to Russia.Source image: apple.comSamsung stopped supplying products to Russia in early March, but Kommersant managed to find that Samsung Electronics Rus Company LLC (SERK) applied for certification of phones, monitors, TVs and other household appliances, including not yet announced products until May 19 at least.
In May alone, the SSEC registered 12 certificates and 22 declarations with Rosakkreditatsiya.
Among them are smartphones Galaxy A13 5G (announced, but not officially sold in Russia), as well as Galaxy A04 and A13s (not yet officially introduced) - all three models were tested May 16 in the center № 300 Rostest-Moscow.Earlier it was reported that the model Samsung Galaxy A13 5G, together with a number of other devices in the range were on sale in Russia under the parallel export program - imported from Kazakhstan devices were sold in stores DNS, \"Fusion\" and \"M.
Video\" with a significant markup.Not to suspend certification of goods and the company Apple, which also in early March, announced the termination of its work in Russia: from 10 to March 21 the company made requests, among other things for the Mac Studio desktop, monitor Studio Display and upgraded iPhone SE - the latter was tested at the Russian Research Institute of Radio.
China's Huawei did not make any statements about ceasing operations in Russia, but it also reduced the volume of supplies and continued to certify its products, issuing declarations in April and May for the Huawei P50 smartphone and the MateStation monoblock computer.
Despite the fact that permits for all of these devices are valid throughout the EAEU (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan), one of the experts interviewed by Kommersant believes that it would be easier and cheaper for manufacturers to certify in the countries where they plan to sell.
This could mean that despite the suspension of sales in Russia, companies are doing so with the prospect of resuming operations in the country, as well as \"to support those who will import their products.