http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/ Engadget Comments for IBM's next gen flash storage to feature spinning electrons http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 12:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 12:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 1:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 11:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/My 13-year old would say; "You're old dad"
My wife would command me to call it Lenovo and chuck it out of the house out of fear of lead-contaminated nano-particles.]]>Aug 21st 2007 12:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 10:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 12:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 1:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 1:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/what causes problems when you go smaller than 65nm?

Ants seem like giant monsters, you can get stepped on, etc.]]>Aug 21st 2007 2:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/
Ever see "Inner Space?"]]>Aug 21st 2007 9:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/
First of all, Samsung has been on 45nm for a while, and Intel 45nm Penryn chips are at fab now.

But this is what happened when people tried to go below 65nm:
Dielectric breakdown -> Ionization of the Silicon -> Ruined Device

That probably didn't make any sense, so I'll do my best to explain.

Start by looking at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lateral_mosfet.svg

That is a MOSFET transistor, which is what most flash would be made from. The easiest way to describe this is to look at it as a faucet handle for electrons. Let's say you the left N+ area is the municipal water supply and the right hand N+ area is the spout. Electrons can't travel across a P region, so you turn the faucet handle by applying a voltage to the "Gate". This basically creates a path for the electrons to cross over, and they start coming out the other side (it would take a little while longer than this to actually explain what is happening, so I apologize if that explanation wasn't sufficient).

When you move past 65nm, one of the biggest problems is with the "oxide" between the gate and the P region. As you decrease the channel length (L in the diagram, this is what you're measuring when you say "65nm") you have to make the oxide thinner (and lower the gate voltage) to make the device operate. At 65nm, the oxide thickness was ~10s of atoms, so there wasn't really any where else to go to make it thinner. That was the problem.

What people ended up doing was changing the "oxide" material (see: high-k dielectrics) But since the old dielectric (SiO2) was one the reasons why we started using Silicon in the first place (it "grows" naturally on bare Si, so it's free and easy), it took people a long time to develop this and to retool the manufacturing to accommodate this new material. ]]>Oct 19th 2007 3:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/Aug 21st 2007 2:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/]]>Aug 21st 2007 4:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/
I am suprised it has taken this long to be picked up by a major company.]]>Aug 21st 2007 10:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/
With this type of format war, you can do either one and it doesn't effect the consumer experience much either way.]]>Aug 21st 2007 12:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/]]>Aug 21st 2007 5:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/
Here, I saved you the trouble of writing your next headline:

"Apple's newest iPod has mass, occupies finite space"

]]>Aug 21st 2007 10:01PM