Citing sources from hard drive makers, news and rumor site DigiTimes says that Apple's iPad could end up slowing SSD growth in the market place. Say what?

The reason, sources say, is because the iPad might create a shortage of NAND flash chips. Apple already consumes about one-third of the total NAND flash output because of the company's immensely popular iPod and iPhone devices, and if the iPad proves to be just as hot, NAND flash supply could tighten.

The news gets even worse for SSD fans. The cost of NAND flash has been the biggest roadblock in pushing SSDs into the mainstream, and the sources noted that prices are continuing to increase. That should change once the NAND flash industry transitions to a 20nm process technology, however that isn't expected to happen until at least the second half of 2011. Bummer.

Following the 'better late than never' motto, Plextor today announced it will try its hand in the SSD market with a pair of high performance offerings, the PX-64M1S and PX-128M1S.

"We're excited to leverage Plextor's expertise in optical storage and enter the SSD market as it continues to grow," said Esteban Kim, Director of New Business Development at PLDS. "PCMark, SYSmark, and HD Benchmark industry utility tests scored Plextor SSDs high and we're proud to have the new lineup available to our customers."

With the recent spate of SSDs boasting read and write speeds well above 200MB/s, Plextor may be stretching things a bit in classifying these as "high performance." The 64GB PX-64M1S comes rated at up to 110MB/s sequential reads and 65MB/s in sequential writes, while the 128GB PX-128M1S sports 120MBs and 70MB/s read and write speeds, respectively.

Both drives are available now for $225 (64GB) and $400 (128GB).

Image Credit: Plextor

You can probably stop trying to cram that external hard drive into your pocket. Kingston may have just solved your portable storage woes with the DataTraveler 310. The 310 is a standard USB flash drive, except it has 256GB of storage. The DataTraveler 300 is a nearly identical unit sold only overseas. The 310 finally lets American buyers get in on the fun. It will be plug and play on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

This is the first flash drive of its size to ship in the US. As such, the DataTraveler 310 commands a premium. The MSRP is going to be $1,108 at launch, but you might be able to find a deal. Well, “deal” is relative here. You’re still looking at paying around a grand for portable storage; granted it is a lot of storage. The DataTraveler 310 could hold 54 uncompressed DVDs or more mp3s than you can shake a stick at.

Can you think of a reason you’d need this much storage on your keychain? Note, “because it’s cool,” is not an acceptable reason. Is there a price at which you’d run out and pick one of these up?

Kingston this week introduced its second generation SSDNow V Series the company says is targeted towards mainstream users. Kingston also claims these second-gen drives offer higher performance than their predecessors, while also boasting TRIM support.

"Kingston has really increased the performance on the new second generation SSDNow V Series drive without raising the price. A first-generation SSDNow V Series 64GB bundle upgrade kit can be found for about $150 (U.S.) at retailers and e-tailers so maintaining pricing will be huge for our customers," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. "By bundling together all of the software, hardware and step-by-step instructions with the drive, we make it easy for everyday users to upgrade with an SSD. The addition of TRIM support is a key benefit because it enables the SSD to maintain optimal performance throughout its lifespan."

The new drives will ship in 30GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities with varying degrees of performance. On the lower end, the 30GB model read speeds up to 180MB/s and writes up to 50MB/s. Both the 64GB and 128GB more than double the write speeds at 110MB/s and 160MB/s respectively, while upping the read speed to 200MB/s.

All drives come with Acronis True Image, while those in the desktop bundle also include a 3.5-inch mounting bracket and SATA data and power cable extenders. The netbook bundle tosses in a 2.5-inch USB SATA external enclosure.

Most of these drives and bundles will start shipping next week with pricing ranging from $110 to $377.

Image Credit: Kingston

Don't worry if you've never heard of IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), because you've certainly heard of the two companies which comprise the joint venture: Intel and Micron. And the big news coming from IMFT today is that the silicon duo have managed to unveil the world's first 25nm NAND Flash memory.

"To lead the entire semiconductor industry with the most advanced process technology is a phenomenal feat for Intel and Micron, and we look forward to further pushing the scaling limits," said Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron's memory group. "This production technology will enable significant benefits to our customers through higher density media solutions."

What this means to Joe Consumer is smaller, higher density designs at lower price points. So next-gen SSDs, for example, could very well end up with larger capacities without jacking up prices far and above what they already are. And according to Intel, performance will be on par with current 34nm products.

IMFT said it has already sent 8GB NAND samples to a handful of manufacturers. These samples represent the industry's first monolithic 8GB NAND devices, and at a die size of 167mm2, they boast twice the capacity of the company's highest density 34nm parts.

For more technical specs, as well as a quick tour inside IMFT's multi-billion dollar semiconductor plant in Lehi, Utah, see HotHardware's write-up here.

Image Credit: IMFT via HotHardware

As storage technology moves inexorably toward solid state, Toshiba is determined to be on the forefront of the changeover. The Japanese tech giant has announced plans to expand their selection of 32nm Multi-Level-Cell (MLC) NAND SSD units. The new lineup will include a “Half-Slim” 128GB SSD suitable for use in netbooks. The drives will be capable of 180MB per second read and 70MB per second write speeds.

Lest you assume that Toshiba has forgotten the performance space, there will also be new high performance SSDs. These standard 2.5-inch drives will be capable of 250MB per second read and 180MB per second write speeds. They will be available in sizes ranging from 64GB all the way up to 512GB.
 
If you’re weary of SSD reliability, fear not. These drives will support the new TRIM commands implemented in Windows 7. The first production samples should show up in Q1, with wide availability in Q2. No pricing information was available.

Ho-hum, just some new Toshiba flash memory chips. Not so fast, though. The sheer existence of this chip could point to the impending production of a certain Apple product. This NAND memory module has a 64GB capacity consisting of sixteen 32Gb NAND chips. Toshiba is touting this as the world’s highest density NAND chip.

Back when the iPhone 3GS was torn apart (as is customary) we saw that is used single Toshiba NAND modules in either 16 or 32GB capacities. Could this be another hint that production is about to ramp up for a next generation Phone? It certainly would jive nicely with the rumors that Foxconn has already received orders for the new smartphone.

Toshiba expects to start mass producing the new chips in early 2010. That’s just in time to start stuffing them into new iPhones a few months later. The iPod Touch has always used a pair of NAND chips, so we may also see a 128GB iPod Touch.

Toshiba today reached another milestone by launching a 64GB embedded NAND flash memory module, which ranks as the highest capacity yet achieved in the industry.

The 64GB part serves as the flagship chip in a new line of six embedded NAND flash memory modules, including 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities. Each one offers full compliance with the latest e*MMC standard and are designed with a variety of consumer electronics in mind, such as digital video cameras, smartphones, mobile phones, and even netbooks.

On the technical side, the 64GB embedded devices combines sixteen 32Gb (gigabit) NAND chips fabricated with Tosbhia's 32nm manufacturing process. It also contains a dedicated controller

Image Credit: Toshiba

Samsung today announced the industry's first mass production of its 30nm class, 32Gb (that's gigabit, not gigabyte), multi-level-cell (MLC) NAND memory with an an asynchronous DDR interface.

"With the new DDR MLC NAND, double data rate transmission can be achieved without increasing power consumption, giving designers a lot more latitude in introducing diverse CE devices," said Soo-In Cho, executive vice president and general manager of the Memory Division on Samsung.

According to Samsung, its DDR NAND chips will significantly improve read performance of mobile devices. The chips come capable of 133Mbps reads, and would replace SDR MLC NAND chips with read performance hovering around 40Mbps.

The company said its new chips can be used in SSDs for PCs, premium SD memory cards for smartphones, and in Samsung's proprietary moviNAND memory.

Image Credit: Samsung

Intel working in conjunction with Numonyx unveiled breakthrough technology that will keep Moore’s Law accurate. The new process will enable non-volatile memory to cost-effectively scale down to 5nm.

Without getting too technical, the companies were able to build upon phase-change memory (PCM) and create a new technology call “phase-change memory and switch” (PCMS). PCMS integrates a new thin-film selector that effectively lets the memory/selector layers stack very densely. The nature of PCM allows it operate in two ways: quick “RAM like” bit changing, and non-volatile storage.

It is unlikely well see devices using the technology for “many years” according to Al Fazio, Intel Fellow and director of memory technology development. However, this is a key first step in continuing to scale technology according to Moore’s Law.