Posts Tagged ‘flash memory’

What Is 3D NAND Flash Memory?

Mike McCrosky April 28, 2022 Flash Memory News

3D NAND, flash drive

3D NAND was developed in response to the scaling limitations of 2D NAND memory.

The layers in 3D NAND were flipped from horizontal to vertical orientation and strings of them were built to form a tower. By changing the direction of how the cells are configured created opportunity to increase storage capacity, reduce size of the storage area and reduce the power consumption to access the cells.

Honestly, it’s a complicated explanation to describe the changes between 2D and 3D NAND, but we found this awesome video from TechTarget. The video is very direct and to the point without over complicated explanations. Please watch it. 2min 20 seconds long.

Surplus of NAND Flash Memory To Continue

Mike McCrosky July 25, 2008 Compact Flash, Flash Memory News, Memory Stick, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital, Solid State Memory

DRAMeXchange published a market research paper stating that NAND flash memory will continue to flood the market at lower prices. NAND flash memory is primarily used for storing songs, photos and other data on gadget type devices like digital cameras, MP3 players and iPods. The biggest contributing factor on why the market will continue to see cheap NAND is lack of sales.

sandisk flash memory

Since production forecasts run months ahead, the market has sitting inventory. To move this inventory prices are continueing to drop. For example, DRAMeXchange reported a drop of 20% in June for NAND memory related devices.

The NAND flash market has been so bad that the creator of the chips, SanDisk, on Monday reported a surprise loss of US$68 million for the second quarter. The company blamed the supply glut for its problems, pointing out that it sold a record amount of flash, 120 percent more than the same time last year, but that prices are down 55 percent compared to then.

SanDisk also reported the flash memory pricing might get worse [better for us] in the third quarter. So, it might be a good idea to start picking out your Christmas items now and make sure it’s some type of flash gadget. On the flip side, with today’s surplus means these companies are cutting back production as well, so once this flood dries up, we could see a shortage for NAND and prices jumping up…and the cycle goes on. Source: Network World. Continue Reading

Flash Memory Prices Will Continue To Fall (What’s New?)

Mike McCrosky February 26, 2008 Flash Memory News

I have my reasons for watching the flash memory market.Â One of the key elements I look for is falling flash memory prices.Â For me, dropping memory prices’ is an indicator other activities I’m in will continue to grow.Â Today I read an interesting article which gave some great detail about the continued drop of flash memory. I’ll start off with a quote to the article, then you can click through for more:

Prices of NAND flash memory could plummet this year because of weak demand and an oversupply of NAND flash in the market, analysts said on Wednesday. If concerns about the U.S. economy deepen, consumers may reduce spending on the phones and other devices that use NAND flash, weakening demand for the chips and depressing prices, said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief memory analyst for iSuppli. He predicted that prices could fall by as much as 55 percent this year. Up to 90 percent of NAND flash is sold as storage for MP3 players and cell phones, or as cards such as the MicroSD that are slotted into digital cameras and other devices. The reduced price for flash could lead to cheaper products for consumers. Apple already dropped the price of its 1G-byte iPod Shuffle this week, to US$49 from $79, partly because of the falling prices of flash memory, said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research.

More. Continue Reading

New 12GB microSDHC is 50% Storage Boost

Mike McCrosky January 17, 2008 Flash Memory News, MicroSDHC, SDHC

SanDisk announced today a massive 12GB microSDHC card which is 50% larger in storage capacity than it’s previous model (8GB). So what does this mean?Â It means our mobile devices are getting one step closer to becoming a storage medium for all sorts of data, phone related or not.Â From MP3 files, video and data files … with 12GB of flash memory, quit a lot can fit.Â To put things into perspective, the microSDHC can hold [about] 1,500 MP3 songs, 3,600 photos and 24.5 hours of video. If you haven’t used or seen a microSDHC card, make sure you stop off at your local computer store and take a look.Â The size is incredibly small.Â About the size of your pinky fingernail. Some background info:Â The SDHC format applies to SD flash memory which is larger than 2GB is storage space.Â The new 12GB microSDHC card conforms to the SD 2.00 specification and has the theoretical maximum storage capacity of 32GB. On a closing note, the new SanDisk microSDHC card has a transfer speed compatible with the Class 4 specification.Â Too geeky for ya – let me sum it up: Continue Reading

Re-Format Your RAW Flash Memory Card

Mike McCrosky January 16, 2008 Solid State Memory

So what is the best way to re-format your flash memory card in RAW format?

format raw flash memory

Unfortunately Windows doesn’t recognize RAW partitions as valid memory…so trying to use Windows utilities just wont work. Windows wont format a card unless it’s in a way that Windows can understand – this would be FAT or FAT32 format for a flash memory card. Sure, you can use Windows utilities to re-format the RAW card into a FAT or FAT32 format, but keeping your RAW format can only be done one way. The most common use of RAW is with digital cameras, and with every digital camera you have the option to re-format the card. This is the process you should use. Depending on your camera performance this format process might be quick or might take some time. So be prepaired. Most cameras will recognize a flash memory card that is FAT, FAT32 or RAW format so you should be fine regardless of the re-format you just [accidentily] performed! Continue Reading