Could Flash Memory Replace Hard Drives?

Posted on September 14, 2005

CNET reports that Samsung has a developed a more powerful flash memory device. CNET says Samsung's is shopping the new flash technology as an alternative to the hard drives in laptops.

South Korean-based Samsung said its latest NAND memory device has 16-gigabit density. That's twice the density of the 8-gigabit NAND memory developed last year by Samsung, Toshiba, Hitachi and others.
NAND flash memory is widely used in consumer devices like digital cameras, cell phones, USB flash drives and portable music players such as Apple Computer's new iPod Nano.
But Samsung's top brass are touting the new small-size, large-capacity device as an alternative to mini hard drives and even the hard drives used in laptops.
"This year, it appears clear that NAND will surpass NOR as the most popular flash memory," a representative with Samsung said. (NOR flash is highly reliable and used to store software code, but it's less dense than NAND.)

If Samsung's new NAND devices can make devices cheaper, smaller and faster then Samsung will probably find a buyer for its latest Flash memory devices. CNET also reported that Samsung says the new devices can store as much as 8,000 MP3 music files or 20 movies.