NAND Flash Memory Turns 25 This Month (August 2012)

Earlier, we detailed the PX-Series SSDs from Toshiba and mentioned how they were released on the same occasion as the 25th anniversary of the NAND Flash market as a whole, so we may as well make a proper note of this occasion.

Flash memory didn't become known on the PC front until a few years ago, when it began to be used in solid state drives that could substitute for hard drive units.

NAND chips have been quite important on the consumer electronics front though, and the other industry segments where compact memory solutions were required.

That said, the capacity of flash memory has increased by a factor of 30,000 over the past quarter of a century. In a similar fashion, the cost of manufacturing NAND chips has gone down 50,000 times.

For those who want some perspective, a 20-megabyte (MB) SSD sold for $1,000 in 1991 (806 Euro), but would go for 10 cents today, if there was anything it could be used for.

Now, smartphones tablets, ultrathin laptops, data centers and cloud applications all benefit from the speed of SSDs or memory cards.

On a related note, 2012 will produce around 2.7 zettabytes (ZB) of digital content, 20 times the yield of 2005. HDDs and ODDs hold most of it, but SSDs are steadily taking over more and more of the market share.

“Flash memory plays a crucial role in enabling the content boom due to its low cost, ease of use and widespread adoption by consumers and professionals,” said Mario Morales, vice president, semiconductors and EMS, IDC.

“Whether it’s a tablet that lets consumers access information on the go or the server behind a social media site, flash memory enables many of today’s most popular applications.”

SanDisk is one of the IT players that chose to publicly acknowledge and celebrate this occasion, having been around for almost as long as flash memory itself (sing 1988).

“We started SanDisk in 1988 with the belief that flash memory would enable entire industries and enrich the lives of billions of people,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, president, chief executive officer and co-founder of SanDisk. “Demand for flash is greater than ever, and it’s an exciting time to lead an industry that holds such tremendous potential for the future.”