Realign the knowledge and the former 32 and 64 gigabit roadblocks to flash storage disappear. Today, Intel and Micron announced the primary 128 gigabit NAND flash chip. The chip, which was created throughout the companies’ joint IM Flash Technologies venture, is smaller than a fingertip, created through a 20 nanometer manufacturing process and is able to 333 megatransfers per second with the choice of stacking as many as eight chips on top of one another. What makes the hot NAND unique is its planar structure that permits individual memory cells to scale much smaller than before. When combined with a Hi-K/metal gate combo to maintain the ability leaks to a minimum, presto, you have got flash memory denser than your mother-in-law’s fruitcake. Mass production of the 128Gb chips isn’t due until the primary half 2012, but you will get a more in-depth intro to the way forward for flash straight away inside the PR below.
Intel, Micron Extend NAND Flash Technology Leadership with Introduction of World’s First 128Gb NAND Device and Mass Production of 64Gb 20nm NAND
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and BOISE, Idaho, Dec. 6, 2011 – Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc., today announced a brand new benchmark in NAND flash technology – the world’s first 20 nanometer (nm), 128 gigabit (Gb), multilevel-cell (MLC) device. The corporations also announced mass production in their 64Gb 20nm NAND, which further extends the companies’ leadership in NAND process technology.
Developed through Intel and Micron’s joint-development venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), the brand new 20nm monolithic 128Gb device is the primary within the industry to enable a terabit (Tb) of information storage in a fingertip-size package by means of just eight die. It also provides twice the storage capacity and function of the companies’ existing 20nm 64Gb NAND device. The 128Gb device meets the high-speed ONFI 3.0 specification to reach speeds of 333 megatransfers per second (MT/s), providing customers with a more cost-effective solid-state storage solution for today’s slim, sleek product designs, including tablets, smartphones and high-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs.)
“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, vp of Micron’s NAND Solutions Group. “Our collaboration with Intel continues to deliver leading NAND technologies and expertise which can be critical to building those systems.”
The businesses also revealed that the most important to their success with 20nm process technology is because of an innovative new cell structure that allows more aggressive cell scaling than conventional architectures. Their 20nm NAND uses a planar cell structure – the primary inside the industry – to conquer the inherent difficulties that accompany advanced process technology, enabling performance and reliability on par with the former generation. The planar cell structure successfully breaks the scaling constraints of the everyday NAND floating gate cell by integrating the 1st Hi-K/metal gate stack on NAND production.
“It’s gratifying to look the ongoing NAND leadership from the Intel-Micron joint development with yet more firsts as our manufacturing teams deliver these high-density, low-cost, compute-quality 20nm NAND devices,” said Rob Crooke, Intel vp and general manager of Intel’s Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group. “In the course of the utilization of planar cell structure and Hi-K/Metal gate stack, IMFT continues to advance the technological capabilities of our NAND flash memory solutions to enable exciting new products, services and form factors.”
The demand for top-capacity NAND flash devices is driven by three interconnected market trends: data storage growth, the shift to the cloud and the proliferation of portable devices. As digital content continues to grow, users expect that data to be available across a large number of devices, all synchronized via the cloud. To effectively stream data, servers require high-performance, high-capacity storage that NAND delivers, and storage in mobile devices has consistently grown with increased access to data. High-definition video is one example of an application that requires high-capacity storage, since trying to stream this sort of data can create a poor user experience. These developments create great opportunities for prime-performance, small-footprint storage, both within the mobile devices that consume the content and the storage servers that deliver it.
Intel and Micron noted that the December production ramp in their 20nm 64Gb NAND flash product will enable a rapid transition to the 128Gb device in 2012. Samples of the 128Gb device would be available in January, closely followed by mass production within the first 1/2 2012. Achievement of this milestone will further enable greater densities and overall fab output, while also helping the companies’ development teams cultivate the expertise required to design complex storage solutions and refine future technologies.
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