25th Anniversary of NAND Flash Technology

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) announced that it has reached a milestone – 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of Toshiba’s invention of NAND flash memory.

Much has changed since 1987 – the NAND flash market has grown rapidly, with flash memory shipping almost 8X more gigabytes in 2011 than DRAM.

NAND flash has become the high density silicon storage of choice. NAND flash memory is used in a variety of memory cards and USB drives, and is found in many consumer, industrial and enterprise cloud applications. This innovation has carved out a path to a new era in which consumers are able to carry videos, music, books and data with them wherever they go.

Designed with a small cell size to enable a low cost-per-bit of stored data, Toshiba’s NAND flash technology is unleashing the mobility of content, thus fueling innovation in the development of products for everyone from consumers to enterprise.

"NAND flash has truly permeated our lives – this technology has been a game changer, making the world a different place and making many of the products we use today possible," noted Scott Nelson, VP Memory Business Unit, TAEC. "The cost/performance of NAND flash continues to stand the test of time. NAND flash is leading the way to thin and light hardware, has made the mobility of content possible, and is enabling ‘green’ storage in the data centers."

Toshiba’s commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the invention of NAND flash will continue throughout 2012. Included in the celebration will be industry events and consumer participation – an interactive campaign that embraces industry voices and experiences exploring the impact of NAND flash is forthcoming.

Comments

The evolution of the flash memories was incredible.

NOR and NAND flash memory technology were invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka while working for Toshiba circa 1980. According to the company, the name "flash" was suggested by Dr. Masuoka's colleague, ShÅ?ji Ariizumi, because the erasure process of the memory contents reminded him of the flash of a camera. Masuoka presented the invention at the IEEE 1984 International Electron Devices Meeting held in San Francisco, CA.

NAND chips are primarily found into USB keys, SSDs, small notebooks, tablets and a number of CE devices, mostly portable phones. Here we analyze the evolution of their main components, chips, as well as USB sticks and SSDs

Flash chips
Increased capacity and lower price of flash keys and SSDs depend directly on the manufacturing process of NAND flash memory chips. SanDisk and Toshiba are now offering MLC generation at 128Gb capacity in a 3-bit-per-cell chip on a 170mm² silicon die built on the most recent 19nm process.

Flash keys
First USB flash keys were developed in the late 90's, the first company in this field being apparently M-Systems, later acquired by SanDisk.

In the U.S., IBM sold an 8MB version in 2001, named Memory Key. Now we reach 128GB and the price have declined rapidly. The first 128MB devices cost $30 or $234/GB. Now you can get a 64GB unit for $60 or $0.9/GB.

SSDs
Once more M-Systems appeared to be the first one in SSDs in 1995.

Since 1999 we have referenced 590 different models launched, following a press release, by 97 different companies.

Among the first ones, BiTMICRO Networks revealed in 1999 the E-Disk SNX35 in 3.5-inch form factor with a capacity from 128MB to 10GB, access time of 500ms, maximum 4MB/s read and write through SCSI-2 interface. The following year M-Systems revealed the FFD SCSI, a 2.5-inch 3GB SSD with maximum 4MB/s read ans 3MB/s write.

Today you can get as much as 16TB into a PCIe SSD (from OCZ) up to 4GB/s read and 3.8GB/s write (Foremay). In yesterday's news, OCZ announces access time as low as 0.04ms for read and 0.02ms for write operations.

Also the prices declined drastically and SSDs can now compete with HDDs. They are costing currently globally five times more but all their specs are much better. In 2003 a Simple Technology's SSD of 2GB was priced at $2,000/GB. Last year, a 650GB unit from OCZ was at $1.3/GB.