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Intel, Micron Introduce 25nm Flash Memory

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US | B 34 comments

Intel and Micron officially announced 25nm process technology.

Intel and Micron Technology announced today that a new era in storage, smartphones, and media players has begun with the introduction of 25-nanometer NAND technology. Not only is this the smallest process for NAND flash memory, but currently the smallest process for semiconductor technology in general. Who said bigger was better?

The joint venture between Intel and Micron will be manufactured by IM Flash Technologies. The 25nm process will cram a whopping 8 GB of storage on a single NAND chip. Intel's announcement today paints a pretty picture on the NAND's actual size: measuring just 167mm2, it's small enough to fit through the hole in the middle of a CD, but packs 10 times the data capacity of the disc.

With that said, manufacturers can cram more storage into their devices, or use the extra room to throw in a new feature. In any case, the number of chips to provide the same amount of storage space has been cut down to half the load. As an example, a 256 GB solid-state drive used 64 NAND chips now only requires 32. A 16 GB flash card now only need two chips, whereas a 32 GB smartphone now only needs four.

Tom Rampone, vice president and general manager, Intel NAND Solutions Group, said that the new 25nm processing should speed up the adaption of solid-state drives. "Through our continued investment in IMFT, we're delivering leadership technology and manufacturing that enable the most cost-effective and reliable NAND memory," he said.

Currently Intel is sampling the 25nm, 8 GB NAND, and plans to kick it into high gear with mass production in Q2 2010.

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Top Comments
  • 21 Hide
    eklipz330 , February 1, 2010 9:20 PM
    Quote:
    it's small enough to fit through the hole in the middle of a CD


    That's what she said.
  • 20 Hide
    BoxBabaX , February 1, 2010 8:51 PM
    I hope this is what we need to drive down prices of the current gen SSD's. I can only imagine the impact it will have on the new smart phones too, no more BS, give us 32gb on smartphones as standard!
  • 18 Hide
    830hobbes , February 1, 2010 9:12 PM
    I feel like its only fair to point out that there are fewer typos and grammatical errors on Tom's lately. Not that articles should be judged by those factors but since they seem to be here: good job lately, Tom's writers!
Other Comments
    Display all 34 comments.
  • 20 Hide
    BoxBabaX , February 1, 2010 8:51 PM
    I hope this is what we need to drive down prices of the current gen SSD's. I can only imagine the impact it will have on the new smart phones too, no more BS, give us 32gb on smartphones as standard!
  • 6 Hide
    burnley14 , February 1, 2010 8:59 PM
    boxbabaxI hope this is what we need to drive down prices of the current gen SSD's. I can only imagine the impact it will have on the new smart phones too, no more BS, give us 32gb on smartphones as standard!


    That's exactly what I was thinking. Hooray for Intel and Micron!
  • 18 Hide
    830hobbes , February 1, 2010 9:12 PM
    I feel like its only fair to point out that there are fewer typos and grammatical errors on Tom's lately. Not that articles should be judged by those factors but since they seem to be here: good job lately, Tom's writers!
  • 6 Hide
    shadow187 , February 1, 2010 9:13 PM
    Awesome. This might bring the 32/64GB SSD's to the Consumer marker, hm?
  • 5 Hide
    wayneepalmer , February 1, 2010 9:17 PM
    I'm dreaming more about 128 GB SSD's that truly and comfortably (AND CHEAPLY) can be used as a boot drive.
  • 21 Hide
    eklipz330 , February 1, 2010 9:20 PM
    Quote:
    it's small enough to fit through the hole in the middle of a CD


    That's what she said.
  • 3 Hide
    bison88 , February 1, 2010 9:28 PM
    If this creates a 50% drop in SSD's across the board who adopt the 25nm chips I will definitely consider upgrading my hard drives.
  • 2 Hide
    dafin0 , February 1, 2010 9:41 PM
    on a different site (not sure if im allowed to post name) they said "Objective Analysis notes the manufacturing cost of the 25nm chips will be approximately $.50 per gigabyte. This is a substantial decrease from the estimated $1.75 per gigabyte cost of 45nm flash."
  • 0 Hide
    zachary k , February 1, 2010 9:42 PM
    hello new flashdrive. i could use both the space, speed, and price improvement. now all i need is for USB 3.0 to go into mass circulation, but that wont happen for some time.
  • 2 Hide
    viewwin , February 1, 2010 9:53 PM
    I have a feeling prices will not drop that fast for a few months after introduction. Way to much demand out there vs supply.
  • 0 Hide
    brendano257 , February 1, 2010 10:00 PM
    dafin0on a different site (not sure if im allowed to post name) they said "Objective Analysis notes the manufacturing cost of the 25nm chips will be approximately $.50 per gigabyte. This is a substantial decrease from the estimated $1.75 per gigabyte cost of 45nm flash."


    Although much cheaper, I think the 1.75 per GB is the retail price, not manufacturing cost, which could be difficult, I still expect prices to be somewhat high, although any advancement or price reduction is a good start!
  • 2 Hide
    TheDuke , February 1, 2010 10:06 PM
    every year I wait for the prices of SSD's to drive down. I hope I'm not disappointed again
  • -1 Hide
    micky_lund , February 1, 2010 10:40 PM
    SSDs are way overpriced..this would want to help
  • -1 Hide
    the_krasno , February 1, 2010 11:20 PM
    Technically speaking, this cuts the factory costs about half! I hope one day they will compete prices with hard drives, so I can get myself an SSD.
  • -1 Hide
    uh_no , February 2, 2010 12:22 AM
    they'll dial back actual release to maximize profits...so I wouldn't see prices come down just yet
  • -1 Hide
    Anonymous , February 2, 2010 2:37 AM
    As much as I would like for this 25nm manufacturing process to bring down SSDs, it's not gonna happen any time soon. Intel will be milking the 32nm flash chips for as much as they can before releasing the 25nm flash chips to retail.
  • 2 Hide
    noob2222 , February 2, 2010 4:44 AM
    Just because its cheaper for them per wafer, doesn't mean cheaper for consumers. It simply means more profits for Intel, especially if this new product is faster than the old ones, it will demand a premium higher price.
  • -1 Hide
    G-Systems , February 2, 2010 4:55 AM
    zachary khello new flashdrive. i could use both the space, speed, and price improvement. now all i need is for USB 3.0 to go into mass circulation, but that wont happen for some time.


    Flash drive? No no... Not flash drive, sir/ma'am--Main drive. I could care less about a faster flash drive. If my installation of Windows 7 can run ten times as fast (since EVERYTHING would essentially feel as if it's running in RAM), I could plug up a mechanical drive for back-up through USB 3.0 :-)...

    Not dissing you at all...just elaborating on the true benefits...
  • -2 Hide
    JonathanDeane , February 2, 2010 5:15 AM
    So for flash drives to really hit a cheaper price they would need to be what 8nm ? 25nm is getting pretty small and they still are going to cost a decent amount for anything even close to a 1TB drive... (I like the advantage of flash drives but OEM's are not going to pack them in a machine until they can get them for about the same price, maybe a little less capacity but 128GB's is pretty small for a computer)

    Don't get me wrong this is great news and its awesome for Intel and Micron to be doing this!!! Congrats!!!

    I still think the best place for this would be some custom version of Windows that will just use the flash drive to boot and for swap. That way something like 64GB's would be plenty of space. Then you could have your 1TB cheap drive for media files and game installs (although it would be nice if the OS also cached some of those files so your programs load faster like a version of Ready Boost hmmm maybe it could partition the drive to use what ever for swap and OS then load as many of your most used programs on the flash drive, again like Ready Boost lol)
  • 0 Hide
    JohnnyLucky , February 2, 2010 5:26 AM
    Hmmm....small, compact, lightweight, efficient, and technologically advanced. Where have I heard that before? I know! The Sony transistor radio! But that was a long long time ago.
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