imft
Latest
Intel ships SSD 335 as its first drive with 20nm flash, asks just a little to stay cutting-edge
Don't panic, SSD 330 owners: your drive hasn't been immediately rendered obsolete. Intel's new SSD 335 is just the first shipping drive using the company's 20-nanometer flash memory. The shrink down from 25nm is primarily a technological showcase that proves the more scalable, hi-K/metal gate borrowed from processors can fly in NAND-based storage. Buyers will still get the same 500MB/s read speeds and 450MB/s writes in a 2.5-inch, SATA 6Gbps drive that will stuff neatly into many desktops and laptops. Intel is shy about pricing for the lone 240GB variant on offer, although a quick scan finds it selling for a slight premium over its ancestor, at $210. While that's still frugal in this day and age, we're guessing that Intel's vow to "pass along the savings" with the SSD 335 won't truly be realized without a reseller price drop or two.
Intel and Micron announce new 20nm NAND Flash manufacturing process
You didn't think Intel and Micron would just rest on their laurels after starting 25nm flash production last year, did you? The two are now back with an even more impressive 20nm process, and an 8GB MLC NAND device that measures just 118mm² and allows for a 30 to 40 percent reduction in board space. Of course, those 8GB chips can also be combined for far more storage, so you can count on seeing even higher capacity phones, tablets and SSDs sometime after production kicks off in the in second half of 2011. At that point, Intel and Micron also plan to show off a 16GB device that promises to allow for 128GB of storage in a solid-state storage solution smaller than a postage stamp. Full press release is after the break.
Intel and Micron start 25nm flash production; SSDs to get cheap, huge
Intel and Micron have a history of pushing the state-of-the-art in flash storage -- their joint venture IMFT was responsible for the first sub-40nm NAND flash and bringing it to production -- and it looks they've done it again: IMFT is now sampling two-bits-per-cell 25nm NAND, which will eventually push prices down and capacities up when volume production begins in Q2. We'll have to see how pricing works out -- 25nm is something like twice the storage density per dollar, so we're hopeful -- but at the very least Intel's third-gen X25-M will come in 160GB, 320GB, and 600GB sizes when it launches in Q4 using these new chips. Yeah, we're going to want one. AnandTech has the full breakdown, hit the read link for more.
Intel and Micron produce first sub-40nm NAND device
Just a few months back, we all gave SanDisk a round of golf claps for moving towards 43-nanometer NAND production. Fast forward to today, and that "feat" doesn't look so mighty anymore. Intel and Micron have just announced the industry's first sub-40nm NAND flash memory device, the 34nm 32 gigabit multi-level cell chip. The process technology was collaboratively developed by the two firms' joint venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT)," and there's nary a hint of shame when they trumpet that this is the "smallest NAND process geometry on the market." Sample shipments are expected to leave the dock in June, while mass production should get going sometime in the second half of this year. Somehow, we get the impression this won't stay on top for long.
Intel and Micron develop "world's fastest" NAND -- kiss SSD random write lag goodbye
How do 200MBps reads and 100MBps writes in a storage device sound to you? Pretty sweet if you ask us. That's the upper spec for Micron's new highspeed 8Gb (Gigabit not Gigabyte, kids) SLC NAND co-developed with Intel on a 50-nm processes node. Once slapped together in an SSD, you can expect performance to easily outshine any existing SSD or mechanical drive on the market while easily kicking the SSD bugbear -- random read/writes -- to the curb. The rub, of course, is that SLC NAND is more expensive than MLC so you can expect to pay dearly for that performance. Watch for the speedy Micron flash to pop in cellphones, camcorders, SSDs (and pretty much every portable consumer electronics device out there) sometime in the second half of 2008 -- sampling now to manufacturers.
