When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Heres how it works.

NAND is a vital component of the future of electronics.

As a result, the race is on to build higher capacity NAND with better performance and lower power.

A person standing in front of a rack of servers inside a data center

Many people believe that a higher layer count is the only way forward.

This new era of NAND is driving a period of change, where the layers-focused race is behind us.

Not allapplicationsneed the latest node with the highest capacity or performance.

Senior vice president of Development Engineering at Western Digital.

But with 3D NAND, its no longer that simple.

Scaling NAND is similar to adding capacity at a hotel.

At some point, there diminishing returns to adding additional floors.

The same logic applies to NAND architecture.

Lateral scaling works by packing every single memory layer while removing some of the redundant support structures.

For example, starting with lateral scaling allows you to optimize the available space before adding another layer.

This phased approach is much more efficient, saving costs while reducing risks.

Logical scaling increases the number of logical bits that can be stored on a physical gear.

And it has the additional benefit to optimize node-to-node cost reduction and minimize capital needed for transitions.

This AI Data Cycle will be a significant incremental growth driver for the storage industry.

And power is increasingly becoming a critical factor in any AI software.

Its not about how many layers the product has.

Focusing on the features that are most important to customersperformance, capacity and power is the winning strategy.

We list the best SSDs: top solid-state drives for your PC.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc.

If you are interested in contributing find out more here:https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro