Intel, Micron Team Up for 128Gb NAND for Future SSDs
Consumers should expect to see higher capacities and lower prices next year with the launch of Intel and Micron's 128 Gb NAND device.
On Tuesday Intel and Micron introduced a "world's first" with the announcement of a new 20-nm monolithic 128 gigabit (Gb) NAND device which doubles the storage capacity and performance of the duo's current 20-nm 64 Gb NAND offering. It was created through their joint-development venture IM Flash Technologies (IMFT) with the intent to cram more storage capacity into small form factor devices like smartphones, tablets, USB drives and SSDs.
According to the report, the new device has the capability of storing 1 terabit of data in a single fingertip-size package with just eight die. For consumers, a 128 Gb device translates to 16 GB of storage. Stack eight of these in a single package and you have a memory chip packing a meaty 128 GB of storage capacity.
The new device is also reportedly the first to use a planar cell structure that "breaks the scaling constraints of standard floating gate NAND" by integrating the first Hi-K/metal gate stack on NAND production. It even meets the high-speed ONFI 3.0 specification to achieve speeds of 333 megatransfers per second (MT/s).
"As portable devices get smaller and sleeker, and server demands increase, our customers look to Micron for innovative new storage technologies and system solutions that meet these challenges," said Glen Hawk, vice president of Micron's NAND Solutions Group. "Our collaboration with Intel continues to deliver leading NAND technologies and expertise that are critical to building those systems."
In addition to the 128 Gb NAND device, the duo also said that their 64 Gb 20-nm NAND has entered mass production, and should enable a rapid transition to the 128 Gb device in 2012. Samples of the 128 Gb device are expected to arrive in January 2012 followed by mass production in the first half of 2012.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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TeKEffect Lower prices. The best news yet from ssds. Don't get me wrong I've been buying them and I love them. But the cost per gb hurts.Reply -
drwho1 "Consumers should expect to see higher capacities and lower prices next year"Reply
so... .50 cents per GB SSD's?
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soccerdocks drwho1"Consumers should expect to see higher capacities and lower prices next year"so... .50 cents per GB SSD's?Reply
Probably, but its gonna have to be on a black Friday/cyber Monday sale. -
drumsrule786 I'm planning on building a new PC in about a year and half hopefully this kind of stuff will make SSD's really cheap by that time because I am definitely going to put one in my new buildReply -
alidan ill believe cheaper prices when i see them, and no i dont consider a 1-10 cent lower price cheaper, i would consider it a joke.Reply -
theconsolegamer alidanill believe cheaper prices when i see them, and no i dont consider a 1-10 cent lower price cheaper, i would consider it a joke.+1Reply -
hannibal 10-20% per year per GB... Don't hold your breath too long. Well they are going to be cheaper, but so slowly. But yeah you are right we sill see older generation SSD near 50 cents, maybe not in the next year, but maybe the next after that.Reply
In anyway, my next build will have SSD boot... how big remains to seen. It is so much faster than normar HD, now it's just the capasity. -
Zeknichov Until prices hit $0.50 I consider them too expensive. I need about 200gb to run all my programs including OS and I would like to pay ~$100. That's the sweet spot.Reply -
alidan ZeknichovUntil prices hit $0.50 I consider them too expensive. I need about 200gb to run all my programs including OS and I would like to pay ~$100. That's the sweet spot.i considered them to expensive to, till my hdd got accessed by a program so hard that it went from a 120mb read to a sub 1mb read, and every thing became far to unresponsive. hell that alone made me go ssd, than i started to put together exactly what i asked of my computer, and realized that much of the slowness came from a heavy load.Reply
i found an 120gb intel drive for 1$ a gb, and jumped on it, its a cristmas present though, so ill have to wait a bit to get my hands on it.