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Samsung slims down NAND memory packaging, wafer-thin gadgets to follow
Good old Samsung and its obsession with thinness. After finally letting its 30nm 32Gb NAND chips out of the bag in May, the Korean memory maker has now successfully halved the thickness of its octa-die memory package to a shockingly thin 0.6mm (or 0.02 inches). The new stacks will start out at a 32GB size, though the real benefits are likelier to be felt down the line when the ability to pack bits more densely pays off in even higher storage capacities. Cellphones, media players and digital cameras will inevitably take the lion's share, but we're hopeful -- eternal optimists that we are -- that this could accelerate the decline of SSD prices to a borderline affordable level. Intel and Micron promised us as much, how about Samsung delivering it?
OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro takes longer to say than to boot
One of these days, SSDs will hit a price point that doesn't require a second mortgage to buy one. Until then, we can just gawk at things like OWC's latest, which is a portable version of Crucial's still relatively new line of affordable SSDs, built around the familiar Indilinx controller and Samsung NAND flash. Coming in sizes from 64GB ($280) to 256GB ($730), the new Pro devices can transfer data and get their power from either a Firewire or USB port. Alas, that means you'll be limited to 100MBps read rates -- as opposed to the 250MBps you could get from an eSATA connection -- but that's a small sacrifice to make if you care about losing the moving parts in your portable storage. [Via Electronista]
Xbox 360 Jasper motherboard with 512MB storage hitting US stores
When the Jasper motherboards started showing up in Xbox 360 consoles late last year there was reason for excitement -- quieter fans, more efficient design, and 256MB of internal storage to set gamers free of overpriced memory cards. Now the systems are receiving an unannounced storage boost, with an XboxHacker forum member braza noticing that his Japanese Arcade model sported a 4GB 4Gb Samsung NAND chip. That's twice the size of the old one, giving the equivalent of a 512MB internal memory unit. That first system was manufactured in April, and they're starting to hit US Arcade units as well. As of now we're not sure if there's a way to tell from outside the box whether you have this beefier revision of Jasper, but we're sure your local retailer wouldn't mind if you just bought their entire stock of consoles and ripped them all open to see.Update: Oops, that's a 4Gb (gigabits) NAND chip, allowing for roughly 512MB (megabytes) of internal storage.
Samsung's 30nm NAND chips give birth to 32GB memory cards
Remember the halcyon days of 2007, when Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" rocked the charts and Samsung revealed its 30-nm manufacturing process, promising a 128GB memory card in every digicam? We're still not quite there yet, but the company is finally releasing the first cards to utilize that manufacturing process, the biggest offering 32GB of storage goodness. That's twice the capacity of its 40nm cards, which never made it past the 16GB mark. 30nm moviNAND chips are in production now in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB sizes, and hopefully will hit retail before that 33 megapixel Mamiya we've had on order finally ships.
