Slashdot Mirror
Intel & Micron Show 34-nm, 32-Gbit Flash Memory Chip
Lucas123 writes "IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between Intel and Micron, announced it has developed a 32-gigabit NAND flash memory chip that is expected to enable the production of cheaper solid-state drives with twice the storage capacity of today's products. The 34-nanometer, multi-level chip is smaller than Intel's latest CPUs. Samples will be available in June with production by the end of the year."
FWIW, another article covering this same press-release noted that most flash costs $2.50/Mbit to manufacture, but this new stuff by Intel costs just under $1/Mbit to manufacture. So the rapid downward spiral of flash storage pricing should continue for at least the short term.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Because smaller is more energy efficient, which is useful on a number of levels: for one, it saves electricity, and it also means that the chips produce less heat, which lets them run better.
The total cost to develop a chip product -- including all EDA functions as well as maskmaking -- has been nearly doubling each node from 90nm to 65nm to 45nm. Moving on to 32nm is projected to raise costs only ~50% over 45nm, but the absolute numbers are now making design-teams pause to consider their choice of manufacturing node. Kinugawa predicted that neither Japanese fabless nor customers nor IDM-internal designers are prepared to jump to the next node -- such that a "several year gap" will appear between the availability of 32nm node fab capacity and substantial demand! They're kinda jumping the gun with 32nm.
New tech is expected every 2-3 years.
32nm was expected for 2009-2010 and 22nm is expected in 2011-2012
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
they should have included a photo of it on someone's finger tip...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I've had lots of flash memory go bad lately, including a brand name 1Gb SD card.
What about the reliability? It's great that they can manufacture on a 32nm line, but given that this is a new process, what reliability testing has it undergone?
I'll go with the proven technology, thank you very much, especially for something where the 'smaller is not necessarilly better' physics side of things kick in.
It just occurred to me while reading this that we can come up with a brand new metric for storage capacity.
When speaking with most non-tech people I know their eyes glaze over whenver I mention megabytes, gigabytes etc.
But now I think this can be solved with MP3, Kilo-MP3, Giga-MP3 etc metrics.
This:
me: "I have 64GB of RAM in my PC"
listener :
Becomes this:
me: "I have 2K-MP3 of RAM in my PC"
listener : wow!
Memory is almost always ahead of the curve when it comes to silicon manufacturing. These were the guys who were at 55nm when the processor industry was temporarily stuck at 90nm.
All kinds of memory can use smaller processes because the logic is much simpler; you're basically laying the same thing out over and over and over again on a die. For the same exact reason, most companies use SRAMs to test their processes before moving up to higher level logic like processors.
hmm i think they meant 32 gigabyte cause 32 gigabit is only 4 gigabyte if i remember right or are they talking about transfer speed ? or i am missing something ?
More importantly, smaller allows it to fit into smaller devices, meaning larger-capacity USB drives, cellphones, and iPods.
There are two methods that I've seen:
The key is determining how much to add. Having too few won't allow you to hit your yield targets, and adding too many is a waste of area (i.e. money). And as you mentioned, products that are more logic intensive don't benefit from this very much.
Having a tight process with great yield is still the best approach (if you can achieve it), though, because you get the great yield with smaller die.
Since we're on the subject of flash memory, I find this article confuses me a tad bit. I was reading an article yesterday that mentioned that the current iPhone has room for a single flash chip, which means the current 16GB variety has a 128Gbit chip in it. But then TFA implies that 32Gb chips are as big as flash memory comes right now, which leaves me at an impasse. How does a device like the iPhone fit 128Gbit as a single chip if chips only come up to 32Gb in size?
Apparently an SSD will be part of Centrino 2: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/23/intel-bundle-ssds-centrino
thegodmovie.com - watch it
Maybe I'm lame, but I still have an old 128MB thumb drive that has lasted this long. I wonder when it will reach vintage state? Yeah, I know. probably never.
Yeah I've been hearing SSD would replace spinning disks for a long time now. Still hasn't happened. Even early this year SanDisk was touting it's next products which I still do not see on NewEgg. When they've actually shipped a FAST 32-gig for under $100 get back to me.
That's one chip though, and stuff like USB drives and SSDs have multiple chips, not just one. Similarly, if you look at a stick of RAM there are several RAM chips on the stick.
All your base are belong to Wii.
Smaller size does not necessarily imply greater energy efficiency. When Intel debuted Prescott at 90nm, it was infamously toasty.
At the 65nm node and below, gate leakage is a big concern, and it can increase power consumption beyond the savings gained from reducing the operating voltage.
I've been booting from USB for the better part of a year now. (I'm on such a system as I type this.) It's a lot easier to manage an operating environment on a USB than one on an internal HD. Especially, if you're in the habit of switching machines frequently. The OS I use is FaunOS. As the price of this kind of hardware drops, it's easier to buy into the vision of portable environments.
Portable environments have to be "live" systems. They present interesting, unique challenges, but as FaunOS and a number of other distros show, portable systems are increasingly becoming quite usable. It'll be interesting to see whether a new ecosystem builds around their use.
--
Have USB will travel - http://www.faunos.com/