SK Hynix Inc. based in South Korea has started mass production of the industry's first triple-level cell-based 321-layer NAND flash memory chips.

NAND flash memory is a non-volatile memory storage medium that is widely used in memory cards, USB drives, solid-state drives (SSDs), and smartphones for general storage and transfer of data, according to South Korean news agendy Anadolu.

It stacks memory cells vertically and is categorized into single-, multi-, triple-, and quadruple-level cells.

SK hynix said it has become the world's first supplier of NAND flash memory with more than 300 layers, building on the success of its 238-layer product, which entered mass production in June 2023.

It plans to begin delivering the 321-layer products to customers in the first half of next year.

SK hynix said the latest development brings the company a step closer to becoming the leader of the artificial intelligence (AI) storage market represented by SSDs for AI data centers and on-device AI.