Intel and Micron announce smallest, cheapest NAND flash yet

Hynix was first out of the gate with triple-level-cell flash memory, but Intel and Micron just pushed the MLC state of the art with their new 34nm three-bits-per-cell NAND, which they say will produce even smaller and cheaper 32Gb chips than those currently on the market. That means we should be seeing some monster storage in some tiny packages later this year when these guys ship -- everyone ready for another round of flash drive purchases?

[Via CNET]

[thisisit Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:39PM]

Yay!!! This supposed to be on my next ZuneHD!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:56PM]

You're willing to pay $999999 for Zune HD?
$999999999999999999999999999999 can be cheapest among more expensive models, ya know?

[ahha Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:41PM]

"...we should be seeing some MONSTER storage..."

Engadget, prepare for getting sued.

[Nick Meijer Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:45PM]

Just like when they got "sued" by T-Mobile over the pink Engadget Mobile logo? :)

[Aguiluz Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:58PM]

LOL, I remember when T-Mobile got pwned.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 8:03PM]

lol

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 2:22AM]

magenta, not pink

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 8:32AM]

@ahha, that was funny but your avatar is in sync with Godwin's law, therefore you get low ranked.

[Guy Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:42PM]

By the time products hit the market using these chips, I'll be about ready to purchase a 2nd gen SSD (1st gen are too expensive.)

Note to Engadget: Thanks for the MS Keyboard/ Mouse! Its been getting lots of use on my media center!

[Tonezorz Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:57PM]

First mention I've seen of someone actually winning a recession antidote...
I thought they just pretended to give stuff away.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 9:36PM]

huh, how about that. maybe he's lying....just waiting till 500g is under $200 might be here a while

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 3:06AM]

WOW! somebody actually won something!!??

[Murkurie Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:44PM]

make SSD affordable maybe? and where did the Nintendo story go?

[Murkurie Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:46PM]

I fail, for some reason firefox loaded a cached engadget page

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:44PM]

Packed full of delicious, delicious ECC to compensate for the massive number of errors these things will encounter on reads and writes. And to think that it will only get worse as they get smaller (and MLC stops working entirely.)

Also, engadget's comment system is broke as hell. It working is like rolling dice.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:48PM]

Sounds like something the Zune HD and iPod Touch can take full advantage of for upcoming Christmas Season.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:51PM]

damn 3bit good thing this is just storage and nothing else. would be confusing if everything was 3bit and not binary anymore.

[loocas Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:59PM]

3bit is still binary, you know...

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 11:36PM]

3 bits per cell. Not 3 states per bit.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 7:59PM]

good news!

maybe I can get rid of my 500GB 7200.4 2.5in drives!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 3:09AM]

you wanna pass that my way when you do?

7200rpm 500gb 2.5 inchers came out just 3 months after i got my 320gb - I was kinda pissed.

[TruUnknowN Posted Aug 11th 2009 8:00PM]

I just read the link, and it said 34-Nanometer or 34nm, its not 32nm Engadget.. Thought you read the announcement correctly?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 11:54PM]

Lol, seriously dude?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 2:38AM]

People everyone can't seem to grasp 34nm, subconsciously replacing it with 32nm. I guess 32 is just so ingrained in our minds as binary based geeks.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 8:09PM]

According to this xbit article Sandisk and Toshiba already have 4 bit per celll (bpc) flash.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/memory/display/20090811113637_Intel_Micron_Develop_3_Bits_Per_Cell_NAND_Flash.html

It's just at a large size cell (43nm), so they should still be competitive

[d3sc3nd3ncy Posted Aug 11th 2009 8:45PM]

I guess this will finally push prices into the 2.00$ per gigabyte.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 3:10AM]

you'll know when have a problem when a gigabyte of storage cost more than a gallon of gas

[Wwhat Posted Aug 11th 2009 9:54PM]

But didn't they invent something better than NAND already, 4 times..
How about putting that in cheap super small retail form? Why stick with NAND when we thought of better stuff?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2009 10:08PM]

Pshaw, you guys are still using bits for storage?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 8:34AM]

No, Quantumphysics uses qubits. I don't know where he is right now.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 3:03AM]

It's...it's beautiful.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 12:49PM]

I thought this was microsoft's new retail store logo.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2009 1:02PM]

I wish someone would make a consumer-priced SLC SSD. From what I read they are supposed to be >=10x the reliability and >=2x the speed of 2-bit MLC, and merely half the capacity. So why are they 3-4x the price?