SanDisk announced that it has successfully developed its 48 layer second generation 3D NAND, also referred to as BiCS2. Pilot production will commence as planned in the second half of 2015 in the Yokkaichi joint venture facility, with meaningful commercial production targeted for 2016.

"We are very pleased to announce our second generation 3D NAND, which is a 48 layer architecture developed with our partner Toshiba," said Dr. Siva Sivaram, executive vice president, memory technology, SanDisk. "We utilized our first generation 3D NAND technology as a learning vehicle, enabling us to develop our commercial second generation 3D NAND, which we believe will deliver compelling storage solutions for our customers." 

SanDisk plans to use the second generation 3D NAND technology across a broad range of solutions, from removable products to enterprise SSDs.