Samsung Begins Production Of 16Gb NAND Flash Memory

[MacRumors]

https://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png

Samsung has announced that they are beginning volume production of higher-density flash memory.

Samsung claims to be the first to accomplish the feat of mass-producing 16 gigabit NAND flash memory, which is being manufactured at 51 nm, down from 60 nm with previous 8 gigabit technology.

The new 16Gb chip which has a multi-level cell (MLC) structure can facilitate capacity expansion by offering 16 gigabytes (GBs) of memory in a single memory card. Furthermore, by applying the new process technology, Samsung has accelerated the chip’s read and write speeds by approximately 80 percent over current MLC data processing speeds.

Apple currently uses flash memory in many of its products, including the iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, and the upcoming iPhone. Rumors have been circulating that Apple will adopt Intel's flash caching technology (featured in the Santa Rosa platform) in its future MacBook lineups. Some analysts have even gone so far as to claim that Apple may introduce a totally flash-based laptop.

 

[Jarooda]

Now that 8GB black nano seems small

 

[TheNightPhoenix]

Two 16gb chips and thats a real nice iPod video.

 

[72930]

And the move to NAND takes one more step

 

[Spock]

Two 16gb chips and thats a real nice iPod video.

But how much will those things cost? Will it be a 32GB $600 iPod video?

 

[Belly-laughs]

Now that 8GB black nano seems small

The 8GB iPhone seems smaller… Not to mention the 4GB.

 

[macsforme]

The article mentions both gigabits and gigabytes... which are we referring to, or are we talking capacity vs. access speed?

 

[Tinlad]

Two 16gb chips and thats a real nice iPod video.

These are 16 gigabit chips, not 16 gigabyte chips. Two 16Gb chips is only 4GB.

 

[Eidorian]

16 Gigabits = 2 Gigabytes

 

[wakerider017]

These are 16 gigabit chips, not 16 gigabyte chips. Two 16Gb chips is only 4GB.

Exactly.

The Gigabits should be bolded in the original post with a footnote at the bottom.

8 Bits = 1 Byte

so

8 Gigabits = 1 Gigabyte

 

[Clive At Five]

The new 16Gb chip which has a multi-level cell (MLC) structure can facilitate capacity expansion by offering 16 gigabytes (GBs) of memory in a single memory card. Furthermore, by applying the new process technology, Samsung has accelerated the chip’s read and write speeds by approximately 80 percent over current MLC data processing speeds.

Wow. That's the part that impresses me. 80% speed increase?

Zoom Zoom.

-Clive

 

[nutthick]

So which is it, gigabit or gigabyte, there's a big difference?

 

[Thanatoast]

:sigh:

Guess no super-secret double-sized iPhones this June, then. Not enough time to manufacture 'em.

 

[WildCowboy]

They're talking about the individual memory chips that go into flash devices/cards. Current cards use 8 Gbit chips, and they're moving to a denser 16Gbit chip. They stack up a bunch of these to make flash cards.

For instance, a current 8GB card uses two 4GB stacks of four 8Gbit (1GB) chips. With these new, denser chips, they can fit twice storage as much into the same space.

 

[hatcher002]

64 gig nada flash from samsung

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semiconductor/common/product_list.aspx?family_cd=NFL0207
64 gig is in Mass Production status

 

[sushi]

It ceases to amaze me why someone would vote negative on this?

Anyhow, greater capacities plus much faster access = good news!

 

[rdowns]

From the article, emphasis mine.

The new 16Gb chip which has a multi-level cell (MLC) structure can facilitate capacity expansion by offering 16 gigabytes (GBs) of memory in a single memory card. Furthermore, by applying the new process technology, Samsung has accelerated the chip’s read and write speeds by approximately 80 percent over current MLC data processing speeds.

 

[MacFly123]

Size

Yes it is talking about speed, but what about this part?

"can facilitate capacity expansion by offering 16 gigabytes (GBs) of memory in a single memory card."

Is that not saying they will make 16GB cards?

 

[WildCowboy]

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semiconductor/common/product_list.aspx?family_cd=NFL0207
64 gig is in Mass Production status

That's 64 gigabits, or 8 gigabytes.

"can facilitate capacity expansion by offering 16 gigabytes (GBs) of memory in a single memory card."

Is that not saying they will make 16GB cards?

Yes, using the new 16Gbit chips (eight of them).

 

[SiliconAddict]

Stack 5-6 of these together and I have no problems going all flash.

 

[hatcher002]

its 8, 8 gig stacks on a single chip

That's 64 gigabits, or 8 gigabytes.



Yes, using the new 16Gbit chips (eight of them).

 

[WildCowboy]

its 8, 8 gig stacks on a single chip

It's a matter of semantics/nomenclature, but the chips are currently 8 Gbit, soon to be moving to this new 16 Gbit level. That's the max density currently available. Anything larger than that is simply stacks of chips, not a single chip.

 

[jbernie]

Yes it is talking about speed, but what about this part?

"can facilitate capacity expansion by offering 16 gigabytes (GBs) of memory in a single memory card."

Is that not saying they will make 16GB cards?

It says they have the potential.... we have the potential to make anything we want, the question is when they can do it at a cost that makes it appealing to the companies to put it in devices.

Given how cheap very large hard drives are these days I wouldn't necessarily expect an all flash laptop etc just yet, maybe they could include flash somehow to increase boot speed or similar. But even on high end models you would be paying crazy $$ for a reasonable amount of space which would be a fraction of what would be offered by other companies for the same price.

There are definately lots of benefit to going to flash, but until all the pros outweight the cost, we won't make that jump.

 

[bloodycape]

I have read and seen pics of Samsung Laptops from Japan/Korea(not sure which show it was), that had one 32gig flash drive(16gb*2chips or so I read) and has been on sale for something like 10 or so months now in Asia. There is also the Sony UX series which use to be 16gb flash and was updated to 32gbs a while back. We can only hope to see that on our MB and MBP(maybe 3*32?).

 

[Analog Kid]

Funny, I thought these had been shipping for a while now... So the Nano's have 2 and 4 chips in them?

The article mentions both gigabits and gigabytes... which are we referring to, or are we talking capacity vs. access speed?

Little b= bits, big B= bytes.