Toshiba just can’t seem to catch a break. In a recent report from Digitimes, its sources within the channel reveal that Toshiba has suffered a massive ransomware attack on its network, forcing the company to shut down its NAND memory production for 3-6 weeks.

According to the article, Toshiba has already resumed NAND production however, the damage has already been done. Toshiba’s NAND production has already been cut by nearly 100,000 wafers. NAND prices were previously expected to drop in the 4Q2017 as supply and demand reach equilibrium however, the latest revelation may delay this until next year.

While much of this is fairly bad news for [...]

The drawn out, drama filled sale of Toshiba’s prized memory business may finally be coming to a close as Reuters reports Toshiba has selected an $18 Billion (2 Trillion Yen) bid from a Bain Capital led group which includes a number of major corporations including Toshiba, Hoya, SK Hynix, Apple, Dell, Kingston, and Seagate.

The infusion of the cash is expected to provide Toshiba 740 Billion Yen after taxes, which will help prevent it from being de-listed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Toshiba had been in a massive amount of debt after major losses by their nuclear power business prompted a multi-billion USD write-off.

Despite Toshiba’s agreement to [...]

To meet the capacity and performance demands of the rapidly developing IoT industry, Toshiba is introducing the BG3 SDD, a tiny, single-package SSD for thinner, more reliable mobile and embedded devices.

As the successor to the BG2, the BG3 uses Toshiba’s 64-layer TLC NAND for higher storage density per drive. It also features a DRAM-less design for better power consumption, lower cost, and a smaller footprint.

Utilizing two PCIe 3.0 lanes and Toshiba’s in-house controller, the BG3 can achieve sequential read/write speeds of up to 1,520MB/840MB/s respectively. The BG3 also has an SLC caching feature which can boost performance when the drive [...]

Despite the global NAND shortage and the financial troubles Toshiba is experiencing as of late, the company recently announced the new TR200 SSD featuring their latest 64-Layer BiCS TLC 3D NAND.

The new Toshiba TR200 will be available in capacities of 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB. Performance is rated at up to 550MB/s sequential reads and 525MB/s sequential writes. 4K performance is rated at up to 80K/87K IOPS random reads/writes. The drive will feature an endurance of 60-240TBW and a warranty period of 3 years.

The Toshiba TR200 is expected to be showcased at the ChinaJoy show in Shanghai, China from July 27 to July 30, then at GamesCon in Cologne, Germany [...]

Following Toshiba’s announcement of their QLC BiCS 3D NAND last month, Toshiba’s FlashForward NAND development joint venture partner Western Digital recently also announced their own 4-bit per cell QLC 3D NAND product which they refer to as X4.

According to the press release, the WD’s X4 features up to 64-layers of BiCS 3D NAND with a maximum die capacity of up to 768Gb (96GB) per die, or a 50% increase in storage capacity compared to previous generation 512Gb 3-bit per cell X3 NAND.

Currently WD hasn’t revealed any information on plans for future products based on the new NAND. WD will show off the new X4 3D NAND at FMS 2017 in August.

Apple and Samsung aren’t exactly on the best terms, but sometimes you just have to set aside your differences to ensure that you’ll have enough NAND to produce your next generation of iPhones.

According to a recent report by Digitimes, Apple suppliers SK Hynix and Toshiba are both experiencing bad yields on their 3D NAND resulting in a shortfall of as much as 30%. In order to ensure an adequate supply of NAND, Apple has reportedly turned to Samsung which not only has relatively good 3D NAND yields, but also has the manufacturing capability to handle the increased demand.

Due to poor yields, global supply of NAND is expected to remain constricted [...]

Over the past few months, there hasn’t been a whole lot of good news coming out of Toshiba, but here’s a recent announcement that I think we can all appreciate. In a recent announcement, Toshiba shared news that they’ve developed the industry’s first 4-bit per cell, Quad Level Cell (QLC) BiCS NAND flash memory chips.

The new QLC NAND features a 64-layer cell structure and boasts up to 768Gbit / 96GB per die making it currently the densest dies on the market. By using 16 dies, Toshiba is able to cram as much as 1.5 TB in a single package. This is a 50% increase over a comparable TLC NAND package with the same number of dies.

“From SLC to [...]

Things are getting heated between Toshiba and Western Digital as Toshiba has recently filed a lawsuit against Western Digital over alleged violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and Civil Code, and is seeking $120 billion yen ($1.07 billion USD) in compensation along with a permanent injunction. In their recent press release, Toshiba accused Western Digital of intentionally delaying the sale of TMC (Toshiba Memory Company) and improperly obtaining trade secrets through their joint venture partnership.

Toshiba claims that Western Digital delayed the sale of TMC by publicly and privately exaggerating its “consent right”, a clause in Western [...]

When a company is forced to sell a highly profitable business in a high growth industry with very few players involved, everyone takes notice. With Toshiba’s memory business, a number of big names such as Western Digital, SK Hynix, Broadcom, Foxconn, TSMC and more have already entered bids for a majority stake in the company, but it looks like competition is about to get a whole lot more intense.

According to a new report from KoreaHerald, as many as 10 companies have entered bids for the Toshiba memory business including heavyweights such as Amazon, Apple, and Google. While these companies are traditionally not in the business of selling SSDs, they heavily rely [...]

Market research firm, Forward Insights, recently released their 2016 SSD marketshare report and according to the report, 63 million SSDs were shipped in the channel over the past year despite the NAND shortage that occurred during a significant portion of the year. The channel market includes distributors, resellers, retail/e-tail, system builders, and solution providers.

As expected, Samsung took the #1 spot for SSDs shipped in the channel, racking up 21% of the market, or 13.23 million units. Following in the #2 spot is Kingston, which took 16% of the market, or 10.08 million units. This is followed by SanDisk, Micron, A-DATA and Toshiba with between 5%-7% [...]