16-Gbit NAND Flash Chip Begins Sampling

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has started sampling its 16-Gbit NAND flash memory — the first NAND flash to use a 50-nm process technology — with customers. The first samples of the high-density NAND flash incorporate a multi-level cell (MLC) design with a 4-kbyte page size to enhance both its read and write features. Compared to the conventional 2-kbyte paging system, the 4-kbyte design doubles the read speed and boosts the write performance by 150%. By nearly doubling the overall performance of Samsung's MLC NAND flash memory, the 16-Gbit device will provide customers of consumer electronics faster data-transfer speeds when storing or reading large data files whether they're using an external memory card or a handset with a built-in flash solution, such as the company's moviNAND. The introduction of 16-Gbit and higher-density NAND flash memories is also expected to accelerate the adoption of non-volatile memory applications such as flash-based solid-state disks.