Samsung Develops 16 Gb Flash Memory

Samsung Electronics on Monday unveiled the world’s first 16 GB flash memory chip produced by 50 nanometer technology. CEO Hwang Chang-gyu called the release “revolutionary” for the global IT industry.

Flash memory is a semiconductor chip that retains stored information even if the power goes out. A stamp-sized memory card made by linking 16 Gb flash memory chips can save the newspapers of 200 years or 8,000 songs.

Hwang said the development signaled the opening of the “digital paper age.” “In the same way that civilization rapidly progressed after paper was invented 2,000 years ago, flash memory will serve as the ‘digital paper’ to store all kind of information from documents to photos and videos in the future. Mobile storage devices like CDs and hard disks will gradually disappear over the next two or three years, and flash memory will dominate the information age,” Hwang said.

Using nano technology, Samsung has doubled the density of memory chips for six years running, ever since developing a 256 Mb chip in 1999. Fifty nanometers is as small as one-two thousandth of a human hair. A 16 Gb flash memory chip made with the technology contains 16.4 billion transistors in a thumbnail-sized space.

Hwang said 40 researchers who worked nonstop forgoing their holidays were the heroes of the tale. Samsung’s 32 Gb flash development team will surprise the world next year, he prophesied.

(englishnews@chosun.com )