Chinese start-up Numemory claims memory chip breakthrough amid US tech sanctions

The Wuhan-based firm recently introduced to the domestic market its 64-gigabyte NM101, a type of storage-class memory chip

Reading Time:2 minutes

Numemory’s new product shows how Chinese memory chip companies continue to push advances in technology, despite US sanctions. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:00pm, 2 Oct 2024

Chinese semiconductor start-up Numemory has launched what it touts as the largest-capacity memory chip in its category designed and produced on the mainland, claiming that it is a breakthrough that bolsters the country’s technology self-sufficiency efforts amid stifling US government sanctions.

Numemory, formally known as Xincun Technology (Wuhan) Co, recently introduced to the domestic market its 64-gigabyte NM101, a type of storage-class memory (SCM) chip that is “expected to break the long-term monopoly of international giants in this field”, according to a report on Wednesday by the government-run Hubei Daily newspaper, without providing details.

Similar products in the market only offer megabyte-range capacity, according to the report, which pointed out the chip’s potential to “significantly reduce the country’s reliance on foreign memory technologies”.

SCM is a memory and storage technology that combines features found in both dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and traditional NAND flash storage found in smartphones and other consumer electronics devices. Sometimes known as Persistent Memory, SCM offers fast non-volatile memory to processors used in servers and storage systems in data centres.

Chinese start-up Numemory’s new NM101 memory chip. Photo: Handout

According to the newspaper report, hard drives equipped with an SCM chip take only a second to store a 10GB high-definition film.

Numemory – founded in July 2022 in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province – said solid-state drives built with SCM technology can offer data centres and cloud computing services providers a storage solution with large capacity, high density, high bandwidth and low latency.