Samsung mass producing 16Gb NAND flash on 51nm

Samsung Electronics announced mass production of 16Gb multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash on a 51nm process, stressing that it has achieved this new migration milestone after announcing production of its 60nm 8Gb NAND flash in August of 2006.

This high-density NAND flash chips can be produced 60% more efficiently than those that made on 60nm and has accelerated the chip's read and write speeds by approximately 80% over current MLC data processing speeds, Samsung noted. According to Samsung, the read speed for a MLC 60nm-made NAND flash is 17MB/second, whereas a 51nm-made NAND flash is 30MB/second. Write speed for the former is 4.4MB/second while the later is 8MB/second.

NAND flash memory reads and writes data in units called "pages" and this 51nm 16Gb NAND can process data in a 4-kilobyte (KB) page size, doubling the data rate from the 2KB page size of 60nm NAND flash, Samsung said. By maintaining the same 4 bit error-correcting code (ECC) capability as that of 60nm NAND, customers can use existing system interfaces with only minor firmware upgrades, the company added. Samsung will also offer a suite of software and firmware-incorporated storage devices for music phones and MP3 players to support 4KB pages.

Source : http://www.digitimes.com/