NAND

With increasingly more capable CPUs and GPUs, the bottlenecks of computing have lately been relocated to memory, both in RAM to some extent but especially in persistent data storage. The race is on among chip makers to produce not just the highest density storage technology but also the fastest. Intel, a name you'd more commonly associate with CPUs rather than storage devices, is also taking part in that race alongside storage maker Micron. And the first fruit of their friendship, the blazingly fast Optane SSD, might even be first seen in Apple's next MacBooks.

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If you need so much storage for your computer that a 1 or 2TB hard drive sounds paltry, you might be interested in Samsung's latest solid-state drive (SSD) announcement: the PM1633a, which offers an incredible 16TB of space, yet still features a 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure. Well, technically it only has 15.36TB, which is why Samsung is billing it as "about 16TB," but even then it's being called the world's largest capacity hard drive.

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Before you get too excited, that wasn't a typo in the title. It's really gigabits, not gigabytes. That means 8 bits for every byte, meaning that a 256 Gb (gigabit) NAND chip equates to a 32 GB (gigabyte) capacity. But now before you go belittling Samsung's announcement because of the numbers, what the consumer electronics company came up with is still a notable achievement. In practice, Samsung's new storage chips can double the capacity of existing SSD drives without doubling the size, which is definitely a huge win.

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SSD memory is fast. Really fast. It’s also much more stable than spinning drives are, making it pretty desirable for those who want reliable performance from their external drive or on-board memory (and who doesn’t?!). The limited offerings for SSD haven’t yet brought it to the mainstream bulk storage front, but a new technology just might do that. Pioneered by Toshiba and Intel, 3D NAND stacks SSD memory chips to allow for more memory in tighter spots? Early results have given us a 10TB SSD.

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As repeatedly mentioned before, with the push for higher displays and CPUs on smartphones slowing down just a wee bit, attention is now being given to the last part of the system to catch up: storage. We are entering a period of not just faster flash memory for mobile devices but also growing densities. Samsung is now trying to pull up even those on lower rungs of the device tier by bringing out the highest density 128 GB eMMC 5.0 storage squarely marketed for mid-range devices.

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QHD/2K screen resolutions. 64-bit processors. LPDDR4 RAM. Our mobile devices have increasingly become much more powerful, so it only follows that our mobile storage solutions try to catch up. That will come with the new eMMC 5.1 standard that was just approved by the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standards group, which offers, among other things, new features that make reading from and writing to storage more efficient. And Samsung is claiming to be at the forefront of this new wave by announcing the first memory chip to support the new standard.

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Despite what seems to be fast-paced progress from the outside, much of the tech world moves at a rather slow pace. Take for example data storage technologies. We are, to some extent, getting more storage, sometimes in smaller spaces, but we're basically just lumping more of the same thing. Eventually, the laws of physics will take over and we can no longer expand. Resistive RAM, or ReRAM or RRAM, wants to take take things to the next level by replacing the age-old NAND tech by something completely different.

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For those not aware of it, Samsung also makes storage solutions, from flash memory inside mobile devices to SSDs for conventional computers like desktops and laptops. For the latter, the Korean manufacturer is trying to take another step forward when it comes to storage technology. Building on the 3D V-NAND tech it first unveiled in the 850 Pro last July, the 850 EVO pushes the limits by using 3 bits per memory cell, increasing the overall capacity of a single Flash memory chip compared to traditional 2-bit storage.

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The Toshiba Corporation is in the process of buying up the better part of OCZ Technology, the maker of consumer and enterprise solid state drive (SSD) storage devices. OCZ last month filed for bankruptcy, having been unable to comply with its loan terms with Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. The purchase price is $35 million and is being made through a bankruptcy auction process.

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It would appear that as Apple begins a move away from reliance on Samsung to create the most massive amount of its mobile products' flash memory, the Korean company is seeking outside help to create enough product for its own Galaxy lineup. Two reports have surfaced today that suggest both Apple and Samsung to be seeking new means and ways of accessing enough product for the innards of their smartphone and tablet lineups. While Apple has bee reported to be teaming up with Taiwan Semiconductor on one hand, Samsung has been tipped to be purchasing memory from Elpida Memory and Toshiba.

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Micron and Intel have announced the results of something that the two have been working on together. The result is the unveil of the world's first 128Gb NAND device. The NAND device is small and aimed at small form factor devices like tablets, smartphones, SSDs, and more. The have also announced the mass production of the 64Gb 20nm NAND.

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Up to a point, we all want our smartphones and other gadgets to be as small as possible. At some point, things can get to small with screens that are too tiny to be readable and enjoyed on the go. Before our gear can get smaller than it is, today we will need the components inside the devices that actually make them work to get smaller too. One of the components inside your device that needs to shrink is the flash memory.

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