Think Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. realizes the stakes in the Flash memory
market?
PRAM combines the fast processing speed of RAM with the non-volatile
The Korean chipmaker today unveiled a 40-nanometer (nm), 32-Gigabit (Gb)
NAND Flash chip, a new technology to replace NOR Flash memory
system-on-chip controller for its forthcoming Hybrid Hard Disk Drive.
Flash memory is a semiconductor technology that
makes it possible for digital devices, such as cell phones, MP3 players and
digital cameras, to store a fair bit of data.
NAND
quantities of data on USB Flash drives, digital cameras and MP3 players.
However, advancements in NAND are leading to the chips’ increased employment
in PDAs and cell phones.
With the use of such devices proliferating at a rapid clip, the goal of
Flash memory chip and product makers such as Samsung, Toshiba and Micron is to
pack as much storage into as small a device as possible.
There are big bucks here; Gartner said NAND Flash sales topped $10.7 billion
in 2005, and the research firm expects $14.7 billion in sales through 2006.
Looking for a competitive advantage versus its rivals, Samsung said in a
statement the new 32Gb NAND Flash device incorporates Charge Trap
Flash (CTF) architecture, which increases the reliability of the memory by
reducing inter-cell noise levels.
How it works is key to its value.
In traditional 32Gb devices, the control gate in the CTF is only 20 percent
as large as a conventional control gate in a typical floating gate
structure.
With CTF, there is no floating gate; the data is temporarily placed in a
holding chamber of the non-conductive layer of the Flash memory composed of
silicon nitride, yielding greater reliability and better control of the
storage current.
Samsung said the 32Gb NAND Flash memory can be used in memory cards with
densities of up to 64 Gigabytes (GBs). A 64GB card can store over 40 movies
or 16,000 MP3 music files.
“The new CTF technology will extend the life span of NAND Flash well beyond
40-nm level of manufacturing process technology, allowing for greater
product miniaturization and greater economies of scale in the production of
consumer electronics,” said Samsung CEO Hwang Chang Gyu.
Samsung said expects CTF-based NAND to be refined down to 20nm at the 256Gb
level over time.
Samsung also said today that it has completed the first prototype of
Phase-change Random Access Memory (PRAM), a 512 megabit (Mb) memory device
meant to replace NOR Flash
NOR has traditionally been used to store relatively small amounts of
executable code for embedded computing devices such as PDAs and cell phones.
features of Flash memory. PRAM can rewrite data without erasing accumulated
data, making it 30 times faster than conventional Flash memory.
Samsung, which expects to pump out devices using PRAM by 2008, said these
higher processing speeds will be popular in future multi-function handsets
and mobile applications where faster speeds yield performance boosts.
Samsung today also said it has developed a new system-on-chip (SoC) solution
for its hybrid drive and will begin mass producing it in November.
The new SoC supports up to 4Gb Flash memory as a data buffer and reduces
power-consumption levels up to 80 percent compared with a hard disk drive.
While Samsung’s new technologies put the present state of NAND Flash in a
good light, the chipmaker has greater hopes for NAND in the future.
Samsung launched the first solid-state-disk (SSD) notebooks in June, looking
to bring NAND to full-on computers.