By Barry Levine

April 30, 2007 10:48AM

In addition to highlighting the storage-capacity increases of the new 16-Gb flash technology, which can lead to storage sizes of 16 GB in a single card, Samsung touted the read-write speeds of the new flash design. Because of the new technology, read-write speeds can be accelerated by approximately 80 percent over current flash speeds.

Samsung Electronics said Sunday that it is the first to manufacture 16 gigabit (Gb) NAND flash chips, which will allow for memory cards up to 16 gigabytes (GBs), the highest capacity available. The chips are fabricated using a 51-nanometer manufacturing process.

 

“In rolling out the densest NAND flash in the world,” said Samsung Semiconductor’s Jim Elliott in a statement, “we are throwing open the gates to a much wider playing field for flash-driven consumer electronics.” He added that Samsung’s process technology was “a ‘half generation’ ahead of the industry.”

 

The Seoul, South Korea-based company said that 51-nm NAND chips can be produced 60 percent more efficiently than those using the 60-nm process. Last summer, Samsung announced 60-nm, 8-Gb NAND flash.


16-GB Memory Cards

Samsung said that with its multilevel cell (MLC) structure, the new design can increase the storage capacity of flash to capacities up to 16 GBs in a single memory card. The chip will be targeted toward memory-intensive portable devices, such as music phones.

 

“No one will ever underestimate the appetite for storage” on mobile devices, noted Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis. He said that with the iPhone coming out with 4-GB or 8-GB capacities, and with Sony Ericsson’s Walkman Phone W950 having 4 GB, four to eight gigs will be the “new normal” for enthusiasts. Both devices use flash memory.

 

He also noted that memory needs for portable devices are growing not only because of digital music and video players, but also because of GPS devices. Users might want to store maps and points of interest locally on a GPS device, he said.


Read-Write Speeds

In addition to highlighting the storage-capacity increases, Samsung touted the chip’s read-write speeds as well. The company said that, because of the new process technology, read-write speeds can be accelerated by approximately 80 percent over current flash speeds.

 

The company noted that the 51-nm, 16-Gb chip can process data in 4-KB pages, as opposed to the 2-KB pages that 60-nm flash memory can handle. The new chips use the same four-bit error-correcting code (ECC) as 60-nm NAND so that the same system interfaces can be used with only minor upgrades to firmware. The company said that if another ECC had been required, new “costly controllers” would have been required as well.

 

So portable devices such as multimedia phones can support the new capability of handling 4-KB pages, Samsung will offer “an optimized suite of flash software and firmware-incorporated storage devices.” The company said that memory cards and MP3 controllers that support 4-KB pages are already available.
Samsung also noted that with this kind of support for the new chips, it expects the worldwide market to grow rapidly. The company is projecting aggregate global sales of $21 billion through 2010.

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