Samsung Plans to Produce 16 GB Flash Chips

Samsung announced that they developed a way to mass produce 16 GB flash memory modules using a multi flash package and they intend to integrate it into various upcoming products such as MP3 players, memory sticks and large capacity memory cards. The fact that they are using this new multi layer technology combined with a new manufacturing process designed to reduce the wafer size by almost 30%, from 46nm to almost 30nm, makes Samsung quite a contender at the top, especially if you take into account the fact that most flash chips producers do not offer products with capacities higher than 8GB.

Samsung also said that - by reducing the wafer size - they would be able to produce 16-chip stacks rather than 10-chip per stack. Moreover, a 16-chip stack has a height of only 1.4mm, compared to the 1.6mm older 10-chip stack products, making the new product not only higher in capacity, but also smaller than before. And "smaller" is always a good thing when you think about mobile gadgets.

On the other hand, in its representative style, Samsung did not say when they are going to release the new flash devices onto the marked. Presumably it will be next year, but no one knows for sure. Oh well, I'm a sucker for big surprises.