Samsung Unveils 64-Gbit Flash Memory Chip

Lucas123 writes "The chips can be combined to create a 128-GB flash storage device capable of holding up to 80 DVD movies or 32,000 MP3 music files. The chip was created using 30-nanometer processing technology that was developed with Samsung's self-aligned double patterning technology. Manufacturing will start in 2009; but the article quotes a Gartner analyst who reminds us, 'Samsung has had a difficult time adhering to its timelines for mass production due to the complexity of MLC architectures and ever shrinking process geometries.'"

Comments

Great math, author.

[Anonymous Coward]

"128-GB flash storage device capable of holding up to 80 DVD movies"

Those must be some pretty small DVDs.

Storage size limit?

[DoofusOfDeath]

"The chips can be combined to create a 128-GB flash storage device capable of holding up to 80 DVD movies or 32,000 MP3 music files.

Am I missing something about that statement, or is it really as stupid as it sounds?

With some time, I could create a 128-*Peta*byte storage device with those chips. In the worst case scenario, you build a device out of multiple 128-GB flash devices.

Re:Storage size limit?

[obergfellja]

forget that, I want a 128 YottaByte (YB) drive.

This Is Great, But...

[MrCrassic]

Has Samsung improved on the inherently bad Flash write speeds? If not, then I don't really see too much of a point for anything other than desktops (where much more revenue could be made for server or workstation-based uses).

Why?

[darthflo]

This flash based player thingie Samsung's building will extremely probably be way more expensive than it'd be using a 1.8" hard drive. OTOH they can shape it more freely (why would they? Hard drives are shaped quite like widescreen displays. Perfect for portable media players) and probably shave off a few millimeters in thickness while providing the same battery runtime.
While this might turn out to be something awesome, I can't really imagine to be willing to pay double (or more?) just to have a 10-15% slimmer media player. Do you?

Say Goodbye to Microdrives

[wolff000]

I never liked the micro drives for portable devices. I move around a lot and the micro drives tend to die on me. Where as the flash players I have had last well forever so far. The only one that died was one I dropped from 300 feet up while rock climbing.

Re:Say Goodbye to Microdrives

[Firethorn]

The only one that died was one I dropped from 300 feet up while rock climbing.

I'm surprised you found it at all.

I wonder if the only reason you couldn't access it was because the interface was damaged - IE you fix the USB port and it'd work again.

Stuff as small as thumb drives tend to have a pretty low terminal velocity - 20 ft and 300 ft end up being pretty much the same.

What about the limited number of rewrites?

[ke_da_wei]

Until they make it possible to rewrite as many times as you can on a traditional hard drive, why would you need one so big?

Bad math

[damn_registrars]

Am I the only person tired of seeing storage listed in terms of "songs"? Come on,

32,000 MP3 music files Really, that number doesn't mean squat. I have a friend who love punk music, where the songs are on average about 45 seconds long. I have another friend who listens to classical music, where many songs are 5 minutes or more. How could you possibly equate those two?

Wouldn't it just make a lot more sense to say it could hold X hours of music, instead?

What cost ?

[Alain Williams]

and how long does such storage last before bits go bad ?