The flash memory business has taken some huge leaps recently, the latest being Samsung's 20-nm process for flash memory.
Samsung announced that its 20-nm, 32-gigabit chips are now in production, with samples going out to manufacturers. They'll be aimed at smartphones, SD cards and "high-end IT applications" when they go into expanded production later this year.
The new chips won't bring about any major leaps in capacity, topping out at 64 GB. We've already seen that kind of storage in mobile devices such as the iPod Touch and Zune HD, along with the first SDXC memory cards. But Samsung says the smaller build process will allow for other advantages.
For instance, these chips are 30 percent faster than Samsung's existing 30-nm processes, with a speed class rating of 10 (20 MB per second read, 10 MB per second write). Samsung also promises increased reliability in these chips, and because the very nature of smaller processes means more memory packed on less silicon, you can expect manufacturing costs to drop as well.
This advancement leaps past a couple recent announcements from Toshiba and Intel-Micron. Toshiba plans to produce chips in the range of 20 nm to 29 nm later this year, and Intel-Micron announced that its own 25-nm chips will go into production during the second quarter.
Of course, none of these new processes will result in revolutionary changes to consumer electronics, but they continue the steady march towards cheaper, roomier mobile devices. And as smartphones becomes more popular, that's exactly what the industry needs.
