Micron Technology Inc. today debuted a new solid-state drive for workstations and high-end personal computers, the Micron 3500, that features its latest 232-layer flash architecture.

The company claims the device sets two industry records. The Micron 3500 is the first SSD for client devices, a term that encompasses PCs and handsets, with a top speed of 2.4 billion data transfers per second. It’s also the first SSD in the category to feature a so-called six-plane design, which improves performance by allowing applications to read up to six pieces of data simultaneously.

The basic building block of the Micron 3500 and all other flash drives is a circuit called a cell. Cells comprise two core components: a control gate transistor and a floating gate transistor. The control gate transistor adds an electric charge to the floating gate transistor to represent a 1 and removes the charge to represent a 0.

The cells in the Micron 3500 are based on a memory circuit design called TLC. Cells that implement this design can store three bits of data, more than most other types of flash with the exception of a technology called QLC. TLC-based SSDs are highly competitive in the capacity department, but trade off some performance and reliability for the extra storage space. 

Memory manufacturers such as Micron stack cells atop one another in layers to increase the amount of data their SSDs can hold. The new Micron 3500 drive is based on the company’s latest 232-layer NAND flash technology. The technology implements a so-called CMOS under Array architecture, which means most of the circuits that manage the flow of data in and out of the SSD are placed below the flash cells.

An SSD’s cells are organized into clusters called planes that each perform data read operations separately. The Micron 3500 has six planes, a first in the product category, which means applications can read six pieces of data at the same time. Retrieving records in bulk is faster than doing so one after one another, which speeds up applications. 

The Micron 3500 also features other performance optimizations. It supports DirectStorage, a feature of Windows that reduces the amount of processor capacity an application must use to move data to and from flash. Reducing storage-related processor usage leaves more compute resources for applications.

The Micron 3500 will ship in the industry-standard M.2 form factor with capacities ranging 512 gigabytes to two terabytes. According to Micron, the device allows applications to read up to seven gigabits of data per second from storage. It promises to outperform competing SSDs by up to 71% when running product development applications and by 132% when running scientific programs.

Image: Micron