Toshiba and Sandisk have separately announced that they've moved into the 19 nanometer space.
Toshiba claims it can now make flash memory chips using the 19-nanometer process. It has said that the process will be applied to 2-bit-per-cell 64GB chips. The company will also add in 3-bit-per-cell products fabricated with the 19nm process to its offerings.
It'll allow Toshiba to develop sixteen 64GB NAND flash memory chips in one package, it says. Furthermore it will be able to push forward 128GB devices as well as adding Toggle DDR2.0, which will enhance data transfer speed.
The company said that it will begin churning out samples at the end of this month and plans to start mass production in the July-September quarter.
Meanwhile Sandisk has launched a 64-gigabit (Gb), 2-bits-per-cell (X2) based monolithic chip made on 19-nanometer (nm).
SanDisk said it will sample its 19nm 64Gb X2 device this quarter and expects to begin high-volume production in the second half of 2011. Like its old mate Toshiba, the company has said that it will also be adding 3-bits-per-cell (X3) products fabricated with the 19nm process to its product lineup.
Last week Samsung introduced its first 20 nanometer NAND chips aimed at smartphones and memory cards.
The 32 gigabit MLC NAND is claimed to have a 50 percent greater productivity level than 30 nanometer MLC NAND.
Intel and Micron Technology also recently paired up to announce a new 20 nanometer NAND memory chip manufacturing process.
Also at 19nm, the whole business of shrinking sizes further down on silicon starts to creak. I don't think there are great hopes to go below 10nm, which doesn't leave much headroom on the roadmaps.
So after doubling density 3-4 more times, there could be a real brick-wall waiting. With tiny little atomic sized bricks, of course!
I wonder what the next big thing will be in storage but flash is already showing some weakness, as far as further development of the technology is concerned.
Before the next technology breakthrough occurs, there could be a status quo developing where flash will totoally take over mainstream and high performance (high I/O) applications, while good old magnetic hard disk drives will rule the roost for very high density applications for quite some time.