Intel and Micron double flash capacity

Intel and Micron have announced new steps in NAND technology that have increased flash capacity two fold and reduced chip size.

The two companies have released what they claim to be the world's first 25nm NAND with a huge 8GB of storage fitting into a chip measuring just 167mm.

"[This is] small enough to fit through the hole in the middle of a compact disc, yet packs more than 10 times the data capacity of that CD (a standard CD holds 700 megabytes of data)," the companies said in a joint statement.

They claimed such tech would allow a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) could be powered with only 32 of these devices rather than the usual 64 and a 32GB smartphone would only need four.

Tom Rampone, vice president and general manager of the Intel NAND Solutions Group, claimed this technology would "help speed the adoption of solid-state drive solutions for computing."

The device is being sampled by a lucky few but expected to go into mass production during the second quarter of 2010.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.