64 GB Coming to SD Cards, USB Drives
Portable storage and SSDs will soon get bigger.
Tuesday Samsung announced that it had begun mass-producing the industry's first 3-bit-per-cell, 64 Gb (8 GB) MLC NAND flash chip using 20-nm-class processing. The news follows Samsung's introduction of 32 Gb (4 GB) 3-bit NAND flash using 30-nm-class processing last November, and the company's 32 Gb MLC NAND using 20-nm-class processing unleashed in April.
"20-nm-class means a process technology node somewhere between 20 and 29 nanometers and 30-nm-class means a process technology node somewhere between 30 and 39 nanometers," the company said.
In addition to the larger capacity, Samsung's new NAND flash will use Toggle DDR (Double Data Rate) 1.0 specifications, offering a 60-percent higher productivity level than the previous 30-nm-class, 32 Gb 3-bit NAND using SDR (Single Data Rate).
"By now entering into full production of 20nm-class 64Gb 3-bit devices, we expect to accelerate adoption of our high-performance NAND solutions that use Toggle DDR technology, for applications that also require high-density NAND," said Seijin Kim, vice president, Flash Memory Planning/Enabling, Samsung Electronics.
Samsung's new 8 GB chips are expected to arrive in USB Drives, SD cards, smartphones and SSDs while replacing the current 4 GB (32 Gb) devices on the market. No particular timeframe was given however the new devices may begin to appear soon and offer 8 GB minimum and 64 GB maximum.
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icepick314 article title is misleading...Reply
USB drives and SD cards with 64GB or more capacity have been available for years...
it should say new NAND cells will be available on next gen USB and SD cards... -
Marco925 icepick314article title is misleading...USB drives and SD cards with 64GB or more capacity have been available for years...it should say new NAND cells will be available on next gen USB and SD cards...I Second that, Although SDXC has been a bit of barrier considering all the Non XC devices i have...Reply -
scifi9000 i was hoping to break the 32Gb barrier on micro SD. I expected bigger capacities by now.Reply -
ruffopurititiwang So... the 64GB SDXC card that I've been using in my camera for months doesn't exist yet? I'm confused.Reply -
ruffopurititiwang princessoliveThat is GBs per chip not per device.Actually, it's 8GB per chip.Reply -
dalauder I was kinda hoping this would provide useful information like data rates, prices, & USB 3.0 availability. Samsung really needs to pay more for better Toms Hardware Ads disguised as articles.Reply -
back_by_demand princessoliveThat is GBs per chip not per device.ruffopurititiwangActually, it's 8GB per chip.Pedantic, he was rightly pointing out to the people who state they already have 64Gb SDXC cards, that if they crack it open it isn't a single chip but several.Reply
We can't be far away from 1Tb USB3.0 flash drives, can we?