How We Reduce the Impact of Our Products on the Environment
The NAND flash memory and Solid State Drive (SSD) products that Kioxia Group supplies are integrated into a wide range of applications and used throughout the world. We are making efforts to reduce the environmental impact of our products during every stage of their lifecycle; this includes reducing CO2 emissions per product capacity during manufacturing and providing efficient products that consume as little energy as possible when in use.
Given the recent spread of AI, the expansion of data centers, and the acceleration of technological innovation in autonomous driving, there is a growing need to increase the capacity and speed of NAND flash memory and SSD products. Kioxia Group's ongoing development of integration technology and the resulting increased memory capacity are allowing us to reduce the level of CO2 emissions per product capacity during manufacturing. Specifically, this is being achieved by reducing the amount of electricity and materials per product capacity used during manufacturing, and improving the energy consumption efficiency of our products for processing 1GB data when they are in use.
On the other hand, the spread of AI is expected to increase demand for flash memory and SSDs with higher speeds and larger capacities. From an environmental perspective, there is concern that this will result in even more electricity being required to operate such devices. For this reason, we expect the need for highly energy consumption-efficient, large-capacity flash memory and high-throughput SSD products to expand to a number of new fields. Furthermore, in order to understand the environmental impact of our products throughout their lifecycles, Kioxia Group has begun evaluating CO2 emissions for its products using the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment）method, 1 and in March 2024, we obtained third-party verification by the environmental risk assessment authority DNV. We plan to gradually expand the scope of this program in the future.
1 A method for quantitatively assessing the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its life cycle (raw material extraction, manufacture, transportation, usage, and waste disposal or recycle) or at a specific stage in its life cycle.
In addition, our R&D department is undertaking the study of technologies that will allow the restoration of NAND performance, thus enabling the reuse of SSDs that have deteriorated after use.
In order to contribute to the realization of a low-carbon society, Kioxia Group will continue to promote as our priority the improvement of energy consumption efficiency and capacity expansion through technological development.
How Kioxia Group’s Products Help Protect the Environment
Targets for Improving the Energy Consumption Efficiency of Our Products
The Kioxia Group will utilize these advanced technologies to further improve the energy consumption efficiency of its products.
Specifically, we have set the challenging target of reducing by FY2025 the amount of energy consumption required by our products to process 1GB data by 50% compared to FY2017 levels.
In FY2023, we successfully achieved a reduction of around 31% in the energy consumption required to process 1GB data compared to FY2017 levels. We were able to do this by achieving higher speeds, by integrating advanced technologies in our NAND flash memory, and by designing our own optimal controllers.
Targets: Improving the Energy Consumption Efficiency of Our Products
Case Studies: Improving Energy Consumption Efficiency during Product Use
UFS Ver. 4.0 Embedded Flash Memory
Kioxia Corporation has improved the performance of its UFS2 4.0-compatible embedded flash memory and commenced mass production. This product has been developed for applications such as high-end smartphones and other mobile devices, and can utilize high-speed 5G networks to achieve faster data downloads and reduce time lag, contributing to the development of high-performance mobile devices that enhance the user experience.
This product packages the company's 3D flash memory BiCS FLASH™ and a controller in a JEDEC-standard package, and offers three capacity types: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. Compared to the company's previous generation products3 sequential write performance has improved by about 18%, random write performance by about 30%, and random read performance by about 13%.
Moreover, the energy consumption efficiency (J/GB) per 1GB data processed is approximately 17% improved for sequential reads and 15% improved for sequential writes compared to the company's previous generation product.
In addition, the package volume of the 512GB product is approximately 16% smaller than that of the previous generation product, contributing to a reduction in the quantity of materials used.
2 A category of embedded memory products built to JEDEC UFS-standard specifications. Its serial interface allows UFS to support full duplexing, which enables both concurrent reading and writing between the host processor and UFS device.
3 Comparison between this product (512GB product model number THGJFLT2E46BATP) and the previous generation product (512GB product model number THGJFJT2T85BAT0).
- The advertised memory on each KIOXIA product is based on the on-board memory capacity, not the amount of memory available for data storage by the end user. Since a portion of the memory capacity is used for memory management and other functions, the usable capacity will be less than that advertised; please refer to the product specifications for details.
- Read and write speeds represent the fastest times recorded under test conditions at Kioxia Corporation; we are unable to guarantee the read or write speeds of individual devices in actual use; these may vary depending on the device used.
- Company names, product names and service names may be trademarks of third-party companies.
PCIe® 4.0, NVMe™ 1.4c Compact Client SSD KIOXIA BG6 Series
Kioxia Corporation has commercialized the KIOXIA BG6 Series, a small form factor NVMe™ SSD with a maximum capacity of 2,048GB, featuring a PCIe® Gen4x4 interface and 6th generation BiCS FLASH™.
The KIOXIA BG6 series, which is equipped with the company's sixth-generation "BiCS FLASH™" 3D flash memory, supports a high-speed interface speed of 64 GT/s (16 GT/s x4) with a PCIe® Gen4x4 lane configuration; the maximum sequential read and write performance of the 1,024GB model is approximately 70% higher than the company’s previous generation client SSDs.4
Furthermore, the energy consumption efficiency of the 1,024GB model has improved by approximately 40% during sequential reads and 30% during sequential writes.
In addition, its adoption of technologies such as Host Memory Buffer (HMB)5 provides a comfortable storage environment for ultra-mobile notebook PCs that require high-speed data processing.
Through the provision of this product, Kioxia Corporation will contribute to the development of high-performance, highly functional notebook PCs that support high-speed interfaces, while at the same time significantly improving energy consumption efficiency during its use.
4 Compared to the KIOXIA BG5 series
5 A technology that allows SSDs to use part of the host memory (DRAM). SSDs without DRAM can have the equivalent performance as SSDs with DRAM.
- Read and write speed may vary depending on various factors such as host devices, software (drivers, OS etc.), and read/write conditions.
- PCIe is a registered trademark of PCI-SIG.
- NVMe is a registered or unregistered trademark of NVM Express, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
- Other company names, product names and service names may be trademarks of third-party companies.
