Intel Creates New Super-Compact 34nm Flash Chip

Flash memory chips are continuing to go down in price, and now they're going down in size, too. Rather than making their chips bigger, which Samsung recently did with their new 256GB SSD chip, Intel and Micron have teamed up to create a new NAND flash chip that crams 4GB of high-quality storage into a space smaller than a thumbnail.

The new Intel chip is so much smaller because, rather than the standard 40-nanometer manufacturing process that most Flash chips are built with, this one is manufactured with a new 34nm process, making it extremely compact in comparison. The new chips could potentially be stacked, creating larger capacity memory for devices like the iPhone. Just two stacks of these chips with four in each stack would hold 64GB of data.

Intel will be sending out samples of the chip to partner companies for their consideration in June, with mass production beginning some time in the second half of this year.

[Intel via Electronista, I4U]