Workers make chips at a factory in East China's Anhui Province. Photo: VCG

Wuhan-based chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) on Wednesday unveiled a new flash memory microchip with the highest bit density in the company's history. 

The product, purportedly a 232-layer product, will push the Chinese chipmaker an inch closer to its global counterparts, closing the semiconductor technology gap, analysts said.

YMTC took the wraps off its fourth-generation 3D NAND, the X3-9070, at a flash memory summit. The new memory offering, powered by the company's Xtacking 3.0 architecture, "has become the highest bit density flash product in YMTC's history," the company said in a statement posted on its website. YMTC didn't specify the exact density numbers.  

The latest-generation lineup boasts 232 layers, comparable with top global chipmakers, media reports said.

YMTC didn't respond to a request for comment as of press time.

Higher density will enable greater storage capacity. The purported 232-layer advancement suggests YMTC is closing in on global memory giants.

US-based Micron Technology announced in late July that "it has begun volume production of the world's first 232-layer NAND."

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix, for its part, revealed on Tuesday that it had developed the world's highest 238-layer NAND flash product.
 
The Wuhan-based memory chipmaker has over the years narrowed the gap with its global rivals as measured by the quality of storage offerings and scaling into mass production, Ma Jihua, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The analyst was upbeat about YMTC taking on industry heavyweights in the foreseeable future.

Last summer, YMTC, established in July 2016, reportedly put into mass production a 128-layer memory chip, a feat of domestic chip-making in terms of stacking density, addressing China's missing link in high-end solid state drives.

Describing the X3-9070 as "a cutting-edge product that boasts a higher bit density, optimized performance, and increased endurance, quality, and reliability in line with stringent testing standards," YMTC reckoned the new lineup to pave the way for the availability of more of its fourth-generation 3D NAND solutions running on its patented Xtacking 3.0 architecture.

"The advancement of 3D NAND technology is crucial for innovation in the memory market, and as the most advanced flash memory to feature this type of architecture, the YMTC Xtacking 3.0 X3-9070 is a key industry milestone," per the YMTC statement, citing Gregory Wong, founder and principal analyst at Forward Insights. 

"Indigenous memory chip-making innovations, exemplified by YMTC's technology upgrading, mean that memory chips are no longer chokeholds, despite the West's suppression," Ma said. 

This, adding to China's lead in chips for Internet of Things devices and artificial intelligence chips, is set to put the country in a better position to ensure semiconductor sufficiency, he said, noting that CPU chip fabrication remains a major weak point of the country's chipmaking.