Toshiba ships 32nm, 32GB flash memory early
updated 07:35 am EDT, Mon April 27, 2009
Toshiba 32nm Flash Early
Toshiba on Monday revealed that it has started shipping its 32 nanometer NAND flash memory ahead of schedule. Originally planned for the fall, the higher-density storage is already being sampled today and should be in mass production by July. The process allows a single, thin 32-gigabit (4GB) chip and, with eight stacked chips, will allow 32GB of memory in a single package.
The company anticipates boosting the capacity of 32nm memory in the future and also notes that it will ship half-density, 16-gigabit (2GB) chips on the same process in the fall.
Which customers will use the higher-capacity flash haven't been specified, though Toshiba is believed one of the 2009 iPhone suppliers and can potentially give the iPhone 32GB of storage. The Apple handset has so far been limited to 16GB of memory as it can only use a single memory package for its storage. The iPod touch allows more and could theoretically keep 64GB of memory.
Toshiba claims that removable cards and USB storage will get the memory first, but that embedded uses like in mobile phones will come soon afterwards.
