SK Hynix to delve further into consumer market with two new NVMe SSDs featuring 128-layer 4D NAND

In a nutshell: SK Hynix, for those not familiar, is a major supplier of DRAM and flash memory chips to OEMs from around the world. With its newest drives, the company is further expanding its reach into the consumer market. This past summer, SK Hynix launched its Gold S31 SATA drives in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities in the US which are built using controllers designed and developed in-house.

South Korean semiconductor supplier SK Hynix is preparing to showcase two new solid state drives at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Gold P31 and Platinum P31 PCIe NVMe solid state drives utilize the company’s own 128-layer 4D NAND flash which entered mass production just six months ago. At the time, SK Hynix said its 128-layer 1Tb 4D NAND increased bit productivity per wafer by 40 percent compared to its earlier 96-layer 4D NAND.

SK Hynix wasn’t too forthcoming with regard to details about its new drives. As such, we don’t know what capacities they’ll be offered in, what sort of speeds to expect, how much they’ll cost or even when they will be available to purchase.

Fortunately, SSD prices in general have come way down as of late. SSDs still aren’t as affordable as spinning alternatives but they’re much closer than they used to be and given the massive performance benefits afforded, it’s finally worth it for most to jump ship to flash storage.