On September 19, 2018, the China Flash Market Summit (CFMS2018) hosted by Shenzhen Flash Market Information Co., Ltd. was successfully held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town. On the day of the summit, Samsung, Western Digital, Intel, Micron, YMTC, Unigroup Storage, Google, SMI, Phison, Longsys, Lexar and other major enterprise in storage industry gathered together to discuss the development of 3D NAND technology, the new opportunity in storage industry market and the storage product innovation application. At the same time, in addition to the companies that gave speeches display exhibiting, Unigroup Storage, JD, SiS, and asolid also exhibited a full range of storage products.

The summit attracted 1,500 people throughout the day. In addition to the guests from companies that gave speeches, it also attracted VIP guests from terminal manufacturers such as Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO, VIVO, ZTE, and Xiaomi, storage vendors such as Kingston and Unigroup Storage, internet companies such as Tencent and AliBaba, as well as important individuals from companies such as finance, capital, and research institutions. CFMS2018 is a storage summit focusing on technology, market, innovation and application. It is also a grand meeting for people in the storage industry.

In 2018, the global semiconductor storage market will reach 150 billion US dollars, and China plays an important role

As the demand for data storage increases, the storage market continues to expand. At this summit, Mr. Tai Wei, the general manager of the organizer Shenzhen Flash Market Information Co., Ltd., predicted that the global semiconductor storage market will reach 150 billion US dollars in 2018. As an important market, China accounts for 32% of the global market.

Mr. Tai further said that the world's core memory chip suppliers are distributed in South Korea, Japan, and the United States. China's localization process in the field of memory chips has also gradually developed. For example, the enterprises represented by the YMTC, JHICC, and Changxin are progressing smoothly, which fundamentally solves the situation that China has long relied heavily on overseas memory chips.

In 2018, the international flash vendors Samsung, Toshiba/Western Data, Micron/Intel, SK Hynix and so on are mainly 64/72 layers. In the second half of the year, some flash vendors have begun to upgrade to 96- or 64-layer QLC. YMTC’s 32 Layer  MLC 64Gb 3D NAND has also been released. Every upgrade of 3D technology has led to a sharp increase in the density of a single Die. Mr. Tai expected NAND Flash storage density will increase by 42% in 2018 compared with 2017, reaching 230 billion GB equivalent, and will promote smart phones and consumer SSDs into the TB era.

Flash vendors big four: Samsung, Western Digital, Micron and Intel are leading the development of 3D NAND technology

Mr. Bae Yong Cheol, CTO of Samsung Greater China, said that Samsung continues to innovate in technology, and the cost of a new generation of QLC products can be reduced by 60%. At the same time, Samsung introduced V-NAND technology with a capacity of up to 1Tb, and the speed will reach 1200Mbps. In terms of market applications, Samsung's second-generation Z-NAND technology combines low latency and high performance as well as reduces costs. It provides SSD solutions for mobile applications in different market segments and different capacity requirements. In terms of mobile storage, Mr. Bae Yong Cheol expected UFS to account for more than 20% of the entire market in 2019.

Mr. Christopher Bergey, Senior Vice President of Western Digital, believes that PCs, notebooks, IoT, mobile devices and other storage requirements are mainly about better for user experience, lower cost, and personal entertainment. Future AI real-time applications, analysis, mobility, low latency for storage, high throughput, high durability, low power consumption, high density, low cost, etc. To meet the growing demand, Western Digital released the fourth generation of 96-layer 3D NAND in 2017. The Fab factory can produce 8,500 Wafer wafers per day. It also has SSD or IC assembly/test factories in Shanghai and Penang to provide customers with high-performance, high-quality, high-performance storage solutions.

Mr. Dinesh Bahal, vice president of Micron Group, believes that the demand for big data storage continues to increase until the average annual growth rate of NAND Flash reaches 40%-45% by 2021, while the NAND technology of Micron is from 40nm to 16nm, and then to 64-layer 3D technology, providing better products and solutions for the market. Just a few months ago, Micron launched new product  based on QLC, the -5210 ION SSD, which is now available on the market, meanwhile Micron focuses on 96-layer next-generation technology that will have greater capacity, higher performance, and better cost-efficiency.

Mr. Liu Gang, general manager of Intel China Non-Volatile Storage Division, said that Intel has layered big data, warm data and hot data. The demand for storage is not only reflected in large-capacity storage, but more in quick processing. In 2018, Intel's QLC and 3D Xpoint technologies will lead two changes in the data storage architecture, one in the large capacity of QLC and the other in high performance and low latency of 3D Xpoint technology. At present, IBM Cloud Service and Tencent Data Center adopt Optane and QLC technologies respectively. Baidu Cloud Artificial Intelligence combines the advantages of QLC and Optane to achieve the effect of server performance upgrade.

In addition, Intel senior architect Anthony Constantine said that PCIe NVMe will become the mainstream interface standard, Intel will also introduce 11.5mmx13mm BGA SSD, and BGA package supports 2.5V NAND, which effectively reduces power consumption, also, EDSFF will have more heat dissipation performance in the future. Meanwhile Intel hopes to further optimize NAND.

A new breakthrough in the storage of YMTC helped by YHHC, a new chapter in the development of China's storage industry

As a newcomer to the NAND Flash industry, YMTC introduced its breakthrough technology at this summit - Xtacking, YMTC Storage CEO Yang Shining said that the YMTC Storage Innovation Xtacking has outstanding performance in terms of capacity, performance and erase-cycle. The YMTC storage 3D technology started from the 9 layer, to 32 layer, and then to the 64 layer test piece, seriously invested in 3D technology research and development, and one plant that is about to enter mass production - Wuhan storage base, originally planned for a 100,000 pieces output, now the production level of the factory can do 150,000 pieces. In 2019, the plant will also officially enter mass production, YMTC storage is actively catching up.

In addition, Dr. Chen Datong, Chairman of YHHC Investment Committee, introduced the elements of entrepreneurship and how to support the development of Chinese storage enterprises from the capital level. Dr. Chen said that the road to entrepreneurship is very difficult, and that China is the cruelest arena in the world. Entrepreneurs need to have the same mind as “Tang Shen” and have an indomitable spirit. On the road to entrepreneurship, we need to make unremitting efforts in investment funds, innovation, industry vision, financial standards, and international operations. The new entrepreneurial model of government and industry, such as YMTC Storage, JHICC, Changxin, etc., will also contribute to the development of China's storage industry.

The Flash vendors’ 3D technology is rapidly iterative, SMI, PHISON, YEESTOR are fully prepared to seize the SSD market

Mr. Wallace Kou, General Manager of SMI Technology, demonstrated the achievements in the controller market. In the past 4 years, SMI embedded controller chip sold 1.3 billion; in SSD, SMI started late and shipped 0.15 billion in the last 3 years. To cope with the development of the flash vendors’ 3D NAND technology, some QLC SSD has been equipped with the controller from SMI. In addition, SMI also showed its new SM2270 controller, which is a dual-mode standard NVME/Open. Channel SSD controller.

Mr. Pan Jiancheng, Chairman of PHISON, believes that in the entire SSD market, 65% of SSD IC controllers are developed by the flash vendors, and the remaining 35% of the market belongs to independent flash controller companies. In the eMMC controller market, the flash vendors account for 70% of the market, and 30% is the market for independent controller companies. Throughout the NAND market, the overall size continues to increase, but growth is limited for the controller. Mr. Pan Jiancheng exemplified that an SSD only needs one controller, and only one is needed wherever the density grows. Moreover, it takes a long-term investment and excellent participants to develop a controller. It is very difficult to survive, but PHISON still maintains the spirit of innovation and deeply cultivates the market.

Mr. Wu Dawei, general manager of YEESTOR, said that he has rooted in the Chinese market and attach importance to technology research and development. The company has 180 people, and about 80% of them are R&D personnel, including IC, firmware, software and testing. Mobile market demand is strong, and he is optimistic about the development of SSD market, YEESTOR’s SSD controller fully supports 64-layer TLC/QLC, YS9203 has completed the Micron 96-layer 3D NAND debugging, and will be mass-produced in 2018 Q4. In addition, its embedded controller is actively moving to UFS to meet the demand for embedded storage in mobile phones.

Longsys leads storage products into the T era, Lexar focuses on high-end mobile storage

Mr. Cai Huabo, Chairman of Longsys, said that since the establishment of the company in 1999, Longsys has continued to increase its technical investment and product innovation. It is transforming from a technical product company to a technology brand company. It owns the FORESEE brand that focuses on the industry and the Lexar brand of high-end consumer storage further enhances corporate value and brand value. In CFMS2018 Longsys announced the establishment of the Automotive Storage Division to address the rapidly growing domestic automotive industry demand. At the same time, the joint industrial partners set up a storage high-end packaging and testing factory in Zhongshan to provide high-performance storage solutions for domestic and foreign customers. The FORESEE brand unveiled 1TB PCIe BGA SSD and 1TB eUFS in CFMS2018.

Longsys acquired Lexar, a high-end storage brand, in 2017. At this summit, Kevin Kilbuck, senior vice president of Lexar, believes that mobile storage will be promising in applications such as drones, cameras, and video surveillance. Lexar has introduced mobile storage products such as 1TB Micro SD card and 1TB SD card to provide high-capacity, high-performance storage products for the security surveillance market and the high-end mobile phone market. In addition, combined with Longsys’ technology and service advantages, Lexar also released a new SSD product line, launched 1TB mobile SSD products, expanded brand application areas, covered more storage application requirements, and led storage products into the T era.

In addition, the BGA SSD, the minimum size can be as small as 11.5mmx13mm. Mr. Yang Zhiping, senior hardware manager of Google, and Mr. Gwendal Grignou, head of the software department of Google, introduced the ultimate experience brought by BGA NVMe SSD from hardware and software respectively. The current PC is lack of creativity, how to have a safe, simple and high-performance Chromebook? BGA SSD's high speed, low power consumption, size and other advantages will provide more innovative space for terminal applications. In the software, Google has added Zswap technology and brought more innovative applications.

Artificial intelligence, automotive electronics, video surveillance, more demands on storage

Mr. Arthur He, head of the NVIDIA Business Division, said that the development of deep learning and the big data generated by the popularization of smart phones and smart terminals have greatly promoted the application of artificial intelligence, which can improve the accuracy of AI beyond the level of human perception. In this process, operations are required. NVIDIA helps AI to accelerate computing, and deep development will naturally generate big data, which demands more on storage.

In the field of automotive electronics, the future of automobiles will be developed intelligently. The automotive intelligent system will focus on intelligent interaction, cloud technology, mobile phone ecology and platform opening. Mr. Fan Yingjun, the head of BYD Automotive Electronics R&D, said that BYD is building an automobile ecological chain with an open attitude. It will create more innovative smart cars, and the huge amount of data generated by smart cars in the future will increase the demand for data analysis, data storage, and data processing.

With the advancement of technology, we can now see high-definition cameras everywhere, and the amount of data generated by 24 hours of uninterrupted video brings unlimited business opportunities to storage. Mr. Feng Li, the person in charge of Dahua flash memory products, believes that with the vigorous development of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things applications in the field of video surveillance, developing towards intelligent trends,the demand for storage is not only the requirement for capacity, but also for high-speed transmission. Requirements for rapid processing, analysis, etc. are also increasing. To meet the diversified needs of customers, Dahua first released intelligent security memory cards that combine AI applications and more suitable for end-to-cloud solutions, featuring high performance, health monitoring, and data encryption.

"CFMS2018 Enterprise Award": Establishing a model for the storage industry

The China Flash Market Summit CFMS2018 Enterprise Awards is presented to outstanding storage companies. To encourage advanced one, but also to set an example for the storage industry and expect these excellent storage companies to provide more storage products, technical solutions and upstream resources. Helping the rapid development of China's storage industry in the future!

Best Brand Influence Award: Samsung Electronics

Best Market Performance Award: Western Digital

Best Supply Service Award: Micron

  Best Technology Contribution Award: Intel

Best Industry Promotion Award: Huaxin Investment

Best Technology Innovation Award: YMTC

Best Controller Contribution Award: SMI

Best Controller Innovation Award: PHISON

Best Product Innovation Award: LONGSYS

Best Technology Application Award: GOOGLE

Best Platform Technology Award: NVIDIA

Best Brand Innovation Award: Lexar

Best Industry Innovation Award: Dahua

Best Automotive Innovation Award: BYD

Best Controller Service Award: Yeestor

Best Industry Contribution Award: Dr. Chen Datong

Flash Lifetime Achievement Award: Fujio Masuoka

CFMS2018 Exhibitors include

Exhibitors include Samsung, Western Digital, SMI, Longsys, Lexar, Intel, Unigroup Storage, JD, PHISON, Dahua, YEESTOR, Asolid, SIS. Exhibits include a range of SSD, eMMC, eMCP, SD and other storage products.

China's flash market, once again sincerely thanks the support for CFMS2018 from relevant government departments, all sponsors and participating NAND Flash vendors, controller manufacturers, system module manufacturers, application chip manufacturers and participants in the storage industry chain. Let us look forward to seeing you again in 2019!