Western Digital says it has misplaced not less than 6.5 exabytes (6.5 billion gigabytes) of flash storage as a consequence of contamination points at its NAND manufacturing services. The contamination may see the value of NAND — the primary element of SSDs — spike as much as 10 %, in response to market analysis agency TrendForce. Any potential NAND shortages or value fluctuations may have an effect on the PC market over the following few months, which had one other huge yr in 2021 regardless of world chip shortages and demand for GPUs.
The contamination of supplies used within the manufacturing processes seems to have been detected in late January at two vegetation in Japan, with Western Digital’s three way partnership associate, Kioxia (beforehand Toshiba), revealing it has affected BiCS 3D NAND flash reminiscence.
Western Digital and Kioxia’s partnership quantities to round 30 % of the NAND flash market, in response to TrendForce. Each Western Digital and Kioxia primarily provide SSD and eMMC storage drives for PCs, and Western Digital is among the main suppliers within the trade.
It’s not clear what precipitated the contamination, whether or not merchandise available on the market will have to be recalled, or when manufacturing will resume. Western Digital says it’s “working carefully with its three way partnership associate, Kioxia, to implement essential measures that may restore the services to regular operational standing as rapidly as doable.”
Supply: The Verge
