The memory specialist Western Digital announced a 128 TB SSD at the "Future of Memory and Storage" conference. Apart from the fact that it uses eighth-generation Quad-Level-Cell (QLC) NAND flash and is intended for specific AI applications, WD unfortunately did not disclose any further technical details - or even the name - so it will be some time before it hits the market. It is also unclear what format it will have.
Quad-Level-Cell (QLC) NAND flash enables high storage capacity as QLC can store more data per cell, leading to lower cost per GB. However, its write endurance is lower, resulting in a shorter lifespan, and the write speed is slower compared to SLC, MLC, or TLC. Therefore, the new 128 TB SSD will likely target specialized applications in data centers with many read rather than write accesses. The presumably initially very high price will also prevent use in the prosumer/consumer segment.
4TB SanDisk Extreme PRO SDUC
Western Digital also announced a new 8 TB SD card in the SDUC format under its SanDisk label, which is twice the capacity of previously available SD cards. Unfortunately, WD also did not provide further information such as price and availability here, but it can be assumed that Quad-Level-Cell (QLC) NAND flash will also be used as storage. Western Digital had already announced the first 4 TB SD card back in April. As this new 4TB SanDisk Extreme PRO SDUC is expected to come to market only in 2025, an even later market launch can be expected for the 8 TB version.