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Samsung ships first 3D vertical NAND flash, defies memory scaling limits
The main challenge in producing higher-capacity flash storage is one of scale -- as density goes up, so does cell interference and the chances of a breakdown. Samsung may have overcome that barrier (if temporarily) by mass-producing the first 3D vertical NAND memory, or V-NAND. Instead of putting memory cells on a conventional 2D plane, the company reworked its long-serving Charge Trap Flash technology to create a 3D cell structure with more breathing room. The result is flash that improves both reliability and speed at higher densities; Samsung claims that the new technology is 2-10X more reliable than its ancestors, and twice as quick at writing data. The initial V-NAND chip offers a 128-gigabit (16GB) capacity that we've seen before, but its underlying technique should scale quickly when a chip can include as many as 24 stacked cell layers. Although Samsung hasn't named the first devices with V-NAND inside, we won't be surprised if our next phone or SSD is particularly spacious.
Samsung makes possible 32 and 64GB CompactFlash cards
It's been barely 10 days since we discussed 8 and 16GB SD cards, but today, Samsung announced today that it has developed the world's first 40-nanometer memory device, allowing for 32 and 64GB CompactFlash cards. According to the company's press release, the new design uses a Charge Trap Flash architecture, which "reduces inter-cell noise levels." Oh, and remember when we asked if anyone had figured out the Moore's Law for flash memory? Turns out Samsung has: "Introduction of a 40nm manufacturing process for 32Gb NAND flash marks the seventh generation of NAND flash that follows the New Memory Growth Theory of double-density growth every 12 months, which was first presented by Dr. Chang Gyu Hwang, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor Business in a keynote address at ISSCC 2002." By those calculations, we should have laptops with flash memory within a year.
