The Toshiba Corporation is in the process of buying up the better part of OCZ Technology, the maker of consumer and enterprise solid state drive (SSD) storage devices. OCZ last month filed for bankruptcy, having been unable to comply with its loan terms with Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. The purchase price is $35 million […]
Well, that was quick. Samsung said it was producing the world’s first 3D vertical NAND memory just a week ago, and it has already started building the first SSDs based on that memory. Unfortunately, they’re not meant for the enthusiast crowd: the new 480GB and 960GB drives are instead designed for enterprise-class servers, where V-NAND’s blend of high capacity and reliability makes the most sense. Don’t be too forlorn, however. Samsung promises that the new memory will eventually reach PC-oriented SSDs, which could bring spacious flash storage to a much wider audience.
Source: Samsung
The main challenge in producing higher-capacity flash storage is one of scale — as density goes up, so does cell interference and the chances of a breakdown. Samsung may have overcome that barrier (if temporarily) by mass-producing the first 3D vertical NAND memory, or V-NAND. Instead of putting memory cells on a conventional 2D plane, the company reworked its long-serving Charge Trap Flash technology to create a 3D cell structure with more breathing room. The result is flash that improves both reliability and speed at higher densities; Samsung claims that the new technology is 2-10X more reliable than its ancestors, and twice as quick at writing data. The initial V-NAND chip offers a 128-gigabit (16GB) capacity that we’ve seen before, but its underlying technique should scale quickly when a chip can include as many as 24 stacked cell layers. Although Samsung hasn’t named the first devices with V-NAND inside, we won’t be surprised if our next phone or SSD is particularly spacious.
Source: Samsung
Toshiba will launch its Exceria Pro series of CompactFlash cards into the Japanese market tomorrow with 160MB/s read speeds and 150MB/s write speeds. The company claims the 32GB and 64GB models are the fastest CF cards you can get now, thanks to the UDMA7 protocol combined with its own NAND flash memory and custom firmware. As such, it’s certified them to the “video performance guarantee profile 2” (VPG-65) standard, meaning they’re guaranteed to sustain 65MB/s, which Toshiba says will support many CF-equipped 4K cameras on the market. Obviously, HD and RAW still shooters using pro DSLR models like Canon’s 5D Mark III and the Nikon D800 won’t have to sweat the frames-per-second, either. There’s no word on US availability or pricing, but we should know more when they hit Japanese shops on April 27th.
It would appear that as Apple begins a move away from reliance on Samsung to create the most massive amount of its mobile products’ flash memory, the Korean company is seeking outside help to create enough product for its own Galaxy lineup. Two reports have surfaced today that suggest both Apple and Samsung to be seeking new means and ways of accessing enough product for the innards of their smartphone and tablet lineups. While Apple has bee reported to be teaming up with Taiwan Semiconductor on one hand, Samsung has been tipped to be purchasing memory from Elpida Memory and Toshiba.
The first report comes from EE Times where their “observers of the electronics and computer industries” – aka nameless sources – have said that Apple has “thrown out” their contract with Samsung for microprocessor manufacturing and is teaming up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. for the immediate future. Apple’s next-generation A7 processor has also been rumored to have been taped out by this company already – that’s a few steps behind actual production!
Meanwhile Digitimes – a group we must remind you has been as reliable as unreliable with their sources in the past, but do have some top-level contacts that end up revealing valuable information rather often – suggest that Samsung is currently unable to fill even their own requirements for memory products. With their Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets pumping out sales like no tomorrow, this report suggests that they’ll be looking for help!
Samsung’s own supply of memory products is already falling short of demand, including that for its Galaxy-series smartphones and tablets, industry sources have claimed.
Also interesting is the added suggestion that Samsung isn’t using these purchased parts for their own Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. Instead, this source suggests, Samsung is keeping its own production reserved for its own mobile products while the rest is shipped out to non-Samsung devices.
They noted that Samsung reportedly is buying more chips from Japanese firms while continuing to use its in-house produced chips for its Galaxy-series mobile devices. This is reportedly happening when Samsung has actually implemented a strategy to tightly control its chip output, the observers pointed out.
That’s a rather sizable claim to be making, and unless Samsung comes forth to say it’s true, we suggest you down a bit of salt while you think about it. If Samsung was indeed reserving its whole DRAM and NAND flash memory production for its own mobile products, notebooks, PCs, and the like, they’d have to integrate their whole business and depend solely on those mobile products to win. Samsung is simply too massive to do such a thing without some big-time decision-making being made.
Samsung hunts for memory help as Apple tipped to jump ship is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Flash memory advancements usually sing the same tune: faster, smaller and high-density. Improve one of these attributes, and you’ve go the makings of a better chip on your hands. Samsung is focusing on the latter, announcing the mass production of its 10 nanometer 128-gigabit three-bit multi-level-cell NAND flash. That mouthful translates into flash chips with more memory per cell in a small form factor. Sammy says the new chip is capable of 400Mbps, and claims the highest density in the industry. The new silicon will be used to expand the company’s supply of 128GB memory cards and high-volume solid state drives. It’s also well positioned to be a better part for devices with embedded NAND storage, which Samsung hopes will keep it competitive. You’ll find Samsung’s announcement and all the granular details after the break.
Source: Samsung Tomorrow
Patriot has just announced a new addition to its collection of storage offerings called the AERO. As the name suggests, the new device is of the wireless variety, which Patriot hopes will garner favor with owners of memory-light tablets and smartphones. To reinforce this ambition, there is of course a companion app — Patriot Connect — for Android and iOS that turns the device into a mobile media hub. With hooks for 3rd party media players, it hopes to overcome any format barriers, and there’s also an internet pass through feature to let multiple users hit the web on the same IP. There are two capacities on offer — 500GB and 1TB — both with WiFi b / g / n, capacity for five connected devices, USB 3.0 and up to six hours of life on the rechargeable battery. The larger of the two will cost $199, dropping to $159 if you don’t need so much storage. Both ship in early April.
Filed under: Storage
Despite the looming threat of being replaced by phase-change memory, contemporary memory modules aren’t quite ready to be shown the door — engineers at Macronix have found a way to revive spent NAND flash cells. Most flash modules fail after being written to and erased about 10,000 times, but Macronix found that the tired memory could be restored by baking it for extended periods of time. The team funneled the time consuming and cumbersome solution into a more practical package: a redesigned memory chip that packs onboard heaters. The new modules are designed to periodically heat focused groups of memory cells to 800 °C (1,472 °F) for a few milliseconds, effectively “healing” worn cells.
Researchers found that heated chips could tolerate more than 100 million write/erase cycles and erased faster at higher temperatures. The team said the power drain of the heaters shouldn’t effect battery life, either — chips don’t have to be heated often, and when they do, it can be done while prospective devices are recharging. Macronix will be presenting the technology at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting next week, but project deputy director Hans-Ting Lue wouldn’t say when the company plans on taking the technology to market. Lue was willing to speculate on what might become of it, however. “This may evolve into a ‘thermally assisted’ mode of operation that gives both better performance — such as the faster erasing — and better endurance flash memory.” Faster, more reliable, super-heated memory. Sounds fine by us.
[Image credit: Emily Cooper, IEEE]
Filed under: Misc
Via: PhysOrg
Source: IEEE
Even though Samsung only announced volume production of ultra-fast eMMC memory chips back in August, it’s already upgrading to a newer generation of hardware. Moving from the previous 20nm process to 10nm, the new 64GB eMMC Pro Class 2000 has a 20 percent smaller physical footprint, and claims 30 percent advantages in both performance and manufacturing productivity. While its previous chips only starting taking advantage of JEDEC‘s eMMC 4.5 interface standard a few months ago, Samsung plans to approach the group next year to create a new standard that can handle this design. It has a write speed of 2,000 IOPS (input/output per second) and a read speed of 5,000 IOPS, besting the 1,500/3,500 numbers reported on the older hardware, and kicks up the bandwidth to 260 MB/s read and 50MB/s write. These chips went into production late last month and are destined for slim phones and tablets near you, even if they don’t say Samsung on the outside.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Samsung
Samsung’s new 10nm-process 64GB mobile flash memory chips are smaller, faster, better originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Geanee Japan outs to day a very affordable Android 4.0 Tablet with the ADP-703. Announced at around 9850 Yen, or 10,000 Yen cheaper than the Nexus 7, the ADP-703 may not offer you the necessary raw power to compete with the Nexus 7, but if you are looking for a very affordable and compact tablet, you have to admit that it will be tough to offer better. Indeed! Despite its price the ADP-703 comes with a 7″ 800×480 screen, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of NAND Flash, 0.3Mpix Camera, microSD Card …
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