Google And Samsung Reach Flash Data Centre Deal

Google is to start using Samsung’s 3D NAND flash drives in Google data centres.

Reported here by the Korea Times, the move will bolster Samsung’s credibility in the 3D NAND market, with a “sizeable” lump of money coming the South Korean’s firms way.

Agreement

A Samsung Electronics spokesperson told the Korea Times: “The agreement calls for Samsung to supply 3D NAND SSD products for Google datacenters. Samsung is in discussions with Google to end some minor differences such as guaranteed shipments and pricing.”

TechWeekEurope reached out to both Samsung and Google about the deal, but has so far received no reply.

The deal comes a week after Micron and Intel announced the availability of their own 3D NAND tech. The companies said that the technology is already being produced and will be in full production by the fourth quarter of 2015.

The Korea Times reported that Samsung’s factory in Xian, China, will increase its annual shipments of 3D NAND chips to 960,000 wafers a year, compared to 2014’s 480,000 wafers.

3D NAND flash memory, as opposed to ‘2D’ regular NAND, sees flash memory blocks stacked on top of each other, which allows for a higher density of memory cells. This improves performance and reliability, with 3D NAND possessing up to twice the write performance as standard planar NAND.

Market researcher TrendForce predicts that 3D NAND will account for just 20 percent of the entire NAND market by the end of 2015.

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