Toshiba XG6 is the world's first 96-Layer SSD

Toshiba announces the world's first 96-layer TLC SSD, the XG6, is shipping to system builders. This line replaces the XG5 and becomes the drive of choice for builders looking to advance system performance by leveraging Toshiba's new BiCS4 TLC memory technology.

The new XG6 features performance up to 3,180 MB/s / 2,960 MB/s sequential read / write and up to 355,000 / 365,000 IOPS random read and write speeds. The series currently ships in three sizes from 256GB to 1TB (1024GB), all in a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor.

Just days ago Toshiba and manufacturing partner Western Digital announced BiCS4 QLC with 1.33Tbit capacity die. The XG6 utilizes new 96-layer 512Gbit TLC die from the same BiCS4 family. The flash features a 40% footprint reduction on the wafer. Toshiba is using string stacking technology to build the first 48 layers and then dropping a second 48-layers on top. Samsung is the only company to announce a true 90+ layer product without using string stacking technology.

The new flash brings a number of improvements over BiCS3. BiCS4 uses Toggle3 Mode technology to increase bandwidth from from 400MT/s to (up to) 800MT/s. Toshiba also reduced the voltage from 1.8v from the previous generation to 1.2v with BiCS4.

The increased bandwidth to the flash reduces program and read time latency. This will decrease latency to increase random performance.