Toshiba shows off 32nm NAND flash chips, promises to go smaller
By Donald Melanson 
posted Feb 25th 2009 1:02PM
posted Feb 25th 2009 1:02PM
32nm NAND flash memory may not seem like a huge leap over some of the current 34nm chips out there, but Toshiba seems to be able to appreciate the little things in life, and it's certainly found plenty to boast about with its latest chips here. Perhaps most notably, the company apparently didn't make any major changes from its previous 43nm chips in terms of device structure, with the exception of one "major improvement" to the circuit that was made to overcome the "extremely small" write margin. The new 32nm chips also pack the same 32-gigabit (or 4GB) capacity as those aforementioned 34nm chips, which should let folks cram a bit more storage into the same small space. Better still, Toshiba says volume production of the chips should begin as soon as September of this year, and it's apparently already aiming to mass produce some chips in the 20 to 30nm range by late 2010 or 2011.
[Via Electronista]
[Via Electronista]
Can they go any smaller?
the next steps in the silicon nanolithography roadmap are 22nm, 16nm, and 11nm if I'm not mistaken. They can't go any smaller right now, but they will go smaller, somehow, in the future.
Thaz what she said :x
that's what your girlfriend said when she left you for patricks...
great
Pretty soon we'll see cellphones that out power my iMac G5. Man I need a computer upgrade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32_nanometer
The right hand side has the road map basically.
2TB microSDXC here we come!!!
Can't wait for the next step. The 31.5mm chips.
i love tech humor
Just as we broke the GB barrier, we'll shortly be breaking the nm barrier and moving into the pico meters. 32nm is enormous that's 32,000 picometers. I'm waiting until we go sub-nano. Design measured in quarks or maybe with strings.
Chasing Schrodinger's cat.
"I'm waiting until we go sub-nano."
Well, considering the diameter of a Silicon atom is ~1/5 of a nm, its going to be difficult...
Oh, and wikipedia says that once you get below about 11nm, the transistor gate thickness quickly becomes a single layer of atoms... Not sure how they move pass that one. Obviously they are going to have to start building transistors from the ground up and not carving them into silicon..
We will never (famous last words) go pico.
After nanometer comes Angstrom (roughly the
diameter of a hydrogen atom (you're milage may vary)).
Frankly I think Angstrom is a more useful term even for today's technology.
So how about Intel's new 320 Angstrom chips!
Ralph Boland
Do we need smaller? I think faster is more important.