Samsung introduces NAND flash chip

South Korean semiconductor giant Samsung Electronics said on Monday it had developed the world's first 16-gigabit NAND flash memory chips using 50-nanometre technology.

Samsung said the new memory chip can store data equivalent to 200 years of a 40-page broadsheet daily newspaper, 8,000 digital music files or 32 hours of DVD-quality movie files on a single memory card.

The firm said it was the world's first flash memory chip with the cutting-edge 50-nanometer technology. Currently, 80-nano technology is the standard for memory chips.

The new chip holds 16.4 billion functional transistors, each measuring one two-thousandths of a metre, the thickness of a human hair, Samsung said..

Samsung, the world largest maker of dynamic random access memory chips (DRAMs), plans to begin mass production of the 16-gigabit NAND flash memory chip from the second half of 2006.

Samsung expects the global market for 16-gigabit NAND flash memory chips to grow to 14 billion billion dollars by 2010. Unlike conventional memory chips for personal computers, flash memory can retain and store information even when a device's power is turned off.

"Memory is opening a bold new world in consumer electronics," said Samsung's semiconductor business division president, Hwang Chang-Gyu.

"With cards containing multiple 16-gigabit flash memory chips, you will be able to take your entire music and personal video libraries with you on one small portable device," he said, Economic Times reported.