Toshiba spreads the word that they are working on a new type of 3D NAND memory, this round it is all about decreasing latency (significantly). It's called XL-Flash and will initially be used for SLC NAND down the path to be also introduced for MLC NAND.

Toshiba made its announcement at the Flash Memory Summit and hopes to further reduce the read latency to 1/10th of TLC memory which should increase the performance of random reads, especially low queue depths should see a significant increase in performance. The reason behind it all is, of course, simple, XL-Flash NAND will further compete with Intel and Micron’s 3D Xpoint. 

XL-Flash sheet — photo: AnandTech

XL-Flash will be based on Toshiba’s 96-layer BiCS4 3D NAND but makes use of shorter bit and word lines to build a die with more planes than currently common on NAND devices. Toshiba has not commented nor mentioned when exactly the first products with XL-Flash will become available, Toshiba also did not provide details on the costs of the new NAND variant.

Toshiba Working on XL-Flash - Reduces latency significantly