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Samsung, the world’s No. 1 manufacturer of NAND flash processors with more than 30 percent of the market, said Dec. 1 that it has begun volume production of 30-nanometer MLC (multilevel-cell) flash chips.
Samsung claims it is the first chip maker in the solid-state processor industry to ramp up production on 30nm-size flash chips.
The new processors will go into flash modules alongside Samsung’s own 3-bit NAND controllers to produce 8GB micro Secure Digital (microSD) cards for use in thumb drives, cell phones and cameras, the company said.
Because 3-bit MLC NAND increases the capacity of NAND data storage by 50 percent over conventional 2-bit chips, consumers will have more room to store larger data files, such as video and high-definition photos.
Samsung, among other flash suppliers, is also working on other NAND advancements, such as asynchronous double data rate MLC NAND memory.
Samsung sells its wares to just about all major device makers, including Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, Research In Motion, Seagate, Dell, Sun Microsystems and newcomer Fusion i-o, which makes enterprise-level NAND flash servers.