A Chinese technology firm is planning to launch two ultra-high-speed (UHS) memory controllers in the market. The firm claims the product has performance on par with similar products from other leading global memory chip manufacturers.
The two UHS memory controllers to be launched include a memory card and a memory module. The memory card can operate at a read speed of 80 megabytes per second in a laboratory simulation scenario, while the memory module boasts a read speed of 200 megabytes per second and a write speed of 120 megabytes per second in a laboratory simulation scenario.
The two chips feature outstanding characteristics such as ultra-high read and write speeds, strong data error correction capacity and adaptability to ultra multilayer QLC (quad-level cell) storage wafers. The newly developed chips have adopted more advanced manufacturing procedures, which greatly improve the chips’ performance and reduce the cost. In particular, the new chips cost more than 60% lower than those purchased from foreign manufacturers. The chips are expected to help the manufacturing of mobile memory to be completely produced domestically.
According to statistics from China Flash Market (CFM), the market of China’s flash memory chips in 2020 amounted to US$56.6 billion, accounting for about 45% of the global market of memory chips, nearly 10% is consumer mobile memory. Each mobile memory needs to be equipped with a memory controller. At present, the global market demand for consumer mobile memory controllers is about 700 million pieces. China’s consumer mobile memory controllers still mainly rely on imports
Although imports on memory chips still account for the majority of sales, China has been developing homegrown memory chips in Guangdong Province. They are currently in mass production and breaking foreign technology monopoly and serving as an alternative to imported chips.
According to an article, a Shenzhen-based high-tech storage packaging and testing firm is producing memory chips and solid-state drives (SSDs) on a mass scale. The company’s chip lineup includes the first such products to be wholly domestically produced, with each integrated circuit and all production processes completed within China. The lineup was developed to resolve a supply bottleneck faced by the domestic semiconductor industry.
The chips and SSDs are used in personal computers and servers, and at least three domestic PC companies have incorporated the chips in their offerings. With the products widely used in laptops and PCs, the company maintains secure cooperation with major system integration companies and computer manufacturers. It also cooperates with some major CPU companies for its products.
Domestic memory chips break a market previously monopolised by several foreign companies and can give Chinese businesses more pricing power. Domestic products can now compete with most middle-end foreign memory chips in price and capacity. Although the price of the chips remains roughly the same compared to its foreign rivals, Chinese companies need to step into the highly exclusive market.
An industry analyst stated that due to their monopoly position, the foreign companies were previously able to increase product price largely at their will. A mature and competitive Chinese product will have the potential to bring the market price down.
Chinese companies have been inventing a variety of technological innovations including data archiving Artificial Intelligence (AI), unified storage, object storage, hybrid flash memory, and series all-flash array. As reported by OpenGov Asia, Two hardware manufacturers team up to leverage the raw data to meet their customer needs in a new manner and find the best use and value of the data.
Both companies agree that object storage has become the fastest-growing storage method. Therefore, one of them has launched object archiving software that can store object data directly on tape to meet custom requirements, optimise performance by packaging objects, and also has the functions of restoring and returning data. They are preparing for research and development in this area and starting to launch more software products.
