Intel and Micron have announced being the first to offer Flash NAND MLC engraved with a size inferior to 40nm. These 4 GB chips produced in 34nm by IM Flash Technologies, a subsidiary shared by the two giants, will enable them to create SSDs with a capacity equal or superior to 256 GB while still keeping the 1.8" format.
Thanks to this particularly advanced process, the surface of a chip will not surpass 172mm², which enables a total density of 1.6 TB on 300mm wafers. While it may seem a bit surprising to see IM Flash Technologies start to use 34nm when the Penryn "only" is at 45nm, we should keep in mind that a Flash or memory chip is generally much less complex than a CPU. Moreover, it was with SRAM that Intel has attacked the
32nm process on 300mm wafers.
