The chips are called iNAND Extreme and will be used in tablets and such

Jun 5, 2012 07:10 GMT  ·  By

Much like Toshiba, SanDisk has started mass production of its latest and best NAND Flash storage chips, designed and built on the 19nm manufacturing process technology.

SanDisk has begun its campaign on the nascent storage market segment rather differently than Toshiba did not long ago.

The latter kicked things off in a more or less straightforward manner, launching three 19nm solid-state drive lines.

The former is taking things one step at a time, aiming to use the tablet market as a proving ground, of sorts, before it does anything else.

That said, the new memory is called iNAND and conforms to the new e.MMC 4.5 specification.

In other words, the chip can read data at 100 MB/s (sequentially) and write at 45 MB/s. And this is in addition to a doubled random write performance compared to previous-generation NAND products.

"SanDisk's technology and manufacturing expertise allow us to provide our OEM customers with the high-capacity storage that generates tangible benefits for consumers," said Dan Inbar, senior vice president and general manager of OEM business at SanDisk.

"We also work with leading software makers to optimize our memory for next generation operating systems, file systems and typical usage patterns. This adds to our ability to help mobile equipment makers build products that provide an outstanding user experience."

SanDisk's 19nm iNAND has 16 GB to 128 GB capacities and measures 12mm x 16 mm. It will be utilized in high-end smartphones and tablets, particularly those with NVIDIA's Tegra 3 SoC at their heart.

Shipments will begin this month (June, 2012) under the iNAND, iNAND Ultra and iNAND Extreme branding schemes. People can expect many Android and Windows RT slates to use 19nm flash devices.

For those who need a reminder or just haven't learned of the fact yet, Windows RT is the name that Microsoft gave to the ARM-aimed version of the Windows 8 operating system.