The most advanced solid-state drives on the market offer an average capacity of about 512 gigabytes. That number might be enough for many users, but it pales in comparison to the density of hard drives, which keep piling on terabytes year after year. In an attempt to break that artificial barrier, Intel and Micron have joined forces to develop NAND 3D technology, which will lead to denser cells and, in the future, 2.5-inch SSDs with 10 terabytes inside.
The Density Problem That Holds SSDs Back
The speed advantages of an SSD are overwhelming. Even the worst SSD can be three or four times faster than a hard drive, and that difference becomes obvious when booting operating systems or launching applications. The main problem with SSDs is the same old one: density. Prices help a little more every day, but the best deals on the market still can't exceed half a terabyte of capacity. It's not that companies refuse to develop larger SSDs; it's just extremely complicated. Increasing storage capacity in a flash cell without altering its physical dimensions poses multiple difficulties, especially considering the increasingly compact designs of tablets and computers.
Intel and Micron's NAND 3D Technology
Intel and Micron, two true giants in the SSD market, have struck a deal to accelerate the development of new chips that incorporate NAND 3D technology. The advances will allow the creation of cells with 32 layers and 256 gigabits in MLC mode, or 384 gigabits in TLC mode. For comparison, current cells sit at 128 gigabits, so this technology will at least double capacity. Micron and Intel indicated that with the volume available in a 2.5-inch drive, the new NAND 3D memories could give way to SSDs with 10 terabytes of storage, and for Ultrabooks or other compact systems, capacity would be 3.5 terabytes.
Pricing and the Road to 2016
Of course, this raises big questions about the final price of SSDs. Even with an extraordinary price of ten cents per gigabyte, a 10TB SSD would require an investment of a thousand dollars. We'll have to wait to confirm: the first products will hit shelves during the first months of 2016.
