Intel and Micron Plan to Shrink SSD Densities in Half

Posted 04/05/2011 at 7:15am | by Paul Lilly

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Chip makers Intel and Micron are in the process of seeing how low each company can go, and it has nothing to do with the Limbo. Instead, it has everything to do with shrinking NAND technology even further with the goal of doubling down the density of their flash chips by the time summer rolls around. Aside from being impressive from a technological point of view, lower density chips ultimately lead to lower cost solid state drives (SSDs).

At the start of the summer, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), a joint venture between Intel and Micron, plan to release an enterprise-class SSD built on a 20nm manufacturing process and utilizing the PCI-E expansion card standard, ComputerWorld reports.

"This will be the industry's leading drive," Kevin Kilbuck, Micron's director of strategic marketing for Micron's NAND Product Group, told ComputerWorld.

It will be called the P320h and serve as the successor to Micron's original enterprise-class SSD, the P300. Like the original, the P320h will use single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory, as opposed to multi-level cell (MLC) memory, the latter of which is more common in consumer SSDs.

Looking ahead, Intel and Micron will face certain challenges in further reducing the size of NAND flash memory. What's more, not many companies have the intellectual property to produce SSDs at the 20nm level, Kulbuck said. He added, "When we were at 50nm, pretty much anyone could slap together an SSD. At 20nm, it's almost the opposite effect."

Image Credit: Micron