Sandisk to Ramp 19 nm Flash in Q4 2011

[Guest]

Sandisk revealed that it will be transitioning its 24 nm flash production to a new 19 nm generation to remain cost competitive in the industry.

Sandisk to Ramp 19 nm Flash in Q4 2011 : Read more

 

[Filiprino]

19 nm. We're getting really small. Wasn't today's limit 11 nm?

 

[Haserath]

The smaller flash gets, the less durability it has. There is going to have to be a new technology before flash becomes more than a boot disk for enthusiasts; not to mention the average non-techie.

At least it's progress.

 

[mavroxur]

Yet SSD's won't become truly affordable for years to come.

 

[loomis86]

I wonder is intel is still on track for the 22nm jump?

 

[loomis86]

I can't keep up with SD cards...what are they up to now? 250GB?

 

[saturnus]

[citation][nom]Filiprino[/nom]19 nm. We're getting really small. Wasn't today's limit 11 nm?[/citation]

Technically it's around 6nm before quantum tunnelling becomes a significant problem. At least for CPUs. Storage is more resistant to random failures as it usually has error correction built in so maybe a fair amount of random data changes is acceptable with the right controller technology, so for flash RAM cells the limit may be stretched to 4nm.

It will also depend on manufacturing process technology, and let's not forget that there's a tendency to cells having more than just one or two bits per cell. Already we have 3 bits per cell and future implementations will likely see 4, 5 or even 8 bits per cell.

 

[Kaiser_25]

ya im skeptical about this photolith is currently at 22nm, and thats usually for critical layer logic, memory is usually a process or two behind...

 

[dark_lord69]

19 huh!?
Wow!
This means lower prices and higher capacities.
For USB flash drives and SSD drives.
I wonder if that means SanDisk will be cheaper than the other brands in the near future.

 

[pelov]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]19 huh!?Wow!This means lower prices and higher capacities.For USB flash drives and SSD drives.I wonder if that means SanDisk will be cheaper than the other brands in the near future.[/citation]

Price has been on a steady decrease (per GB, that is) and will likely keep toward that trend, though probably not as fast as some would like -- myself included.

The one thing holding me back from jumping ship is still the reliability issue. It still seems like Samsung/intel/crucial m4's are the only choices for those who prefer reliability over pure performance; though the m4's are nothing to scoff at. At some point you have to ask yourself: Do I need another 100MB/s read/write speed or do I want an SSD I can use for the next few years without having to worry about firmware and BSOD issues. The move to lower nm should decrease power consumption figures and since the mobile market is in demand of SSDs and booming, that's a great sign. Now for the reliability issues...

 

[danwat1234]

[citation][nom]Haserath[/nom]The smaller flash gets, the less durability it has. There is going to have to be a new technology before flash becomes more than a boot disk for enthusiasts; not to mention the average non-techie.At least it's progress.[/citation]

You are a non-believer. Let me help you: A famous thread with members stretching the write limits of modern SSDs. Many have reached over 200TB without a problem!
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page96

I agree that as flash memory goes into even smaller lithography sizes that it might be a problem in the future, but we will probably figure it out.

 

[eddieroolz]

I find it strange how we're already on 19nm for flash yet SSDs have barely come down in price.