nand

Apple's long been at the top of the heap when it comes to making money on one key aspect of its portable devices: storage.

That trend continued with this morning's announcement of a 128GB model of the iPad, a device that costs just a steak dinner short of a full-blown Mac notebook.

The new models ring in at $799 for the Wi-Fi only, or $929 for the version with 4G LTE connectivity. That's $100 more than the 64GB model, which is $100 more than the 32GB model, which is -- you guessed it -- $100 more than … Read more

Steve Appleton mirrored the survivalist streak in the company he led.

Micron Technology CEO Appleton died Friday at 51 years old when a high-performance Lancair plane he was piloting crashed at Boise Airport in Idaho.

Lancairs aren't easy to fly. In fact, they're difficult enough that the Federal Aviation Administration gave notice to Lancair operators in 2009 that the planes had a "disproportionate" number of fatal accidents.

Though Lancairs accounted for only 3 percent of the nation's amateur-built airplanes, they accounted for 16 percent of the fatal accidents in the 11 months prior to the … Read more

The reported acquisition of Anobit should catapult Apple into the ranks of leading flash memory companies and mirrors what it has done with the A series of chips in its iPhone and iPad.

Apple is in the process of buying Anobit, an Israel-based flash memory firm, according to Israel's Calcalist business news site. The purchase price isn't small--in the range of $400 million to $500 million, according to reports.

So, what does a payout in that range bring to Apple? First of all, it's important to understand that Apple is not a flash memory neophyte, according to … Read more

Via Labs announced today its latest USB 3.0 controller, the VL751 SuperSpeed USB to NAND flash controller. This is the company's second-generation single-chip solution for USB 3.0 flash-based portable storage devices.

Via Labs says that the new VL751 controller features a four-channel NAND interface, capable of doubling or even quadrupling maximum throughput over single- or dual-channel designs. It offers improved parallelization and higher efficiency by means of integrated preread and prewrite buffers. And it boasts better support for flash memory. These enhancements translate into a nearly 100 percent performance boost over the previous model without increased power … Read more

Apple's upcoming refresh of the MacBook Air will get more than just new Intel processors. A Japanese report says the flash drives will get updated storage tech too.

Apple's flash drives--also referred to as solid-state drives or SSDs--in the upcoming MacBook Air will use a technology called "Toggle Mode Double Data Rate NAND Flash" 2.0 (Toggle DDR 2.0) according to Macotakara, a Japanese-language Apple enthusiast Web site.

The standard is supported by Toshiba and Samsung. Both companies currently supply flash drives for the MacBook Air.

Here's how Toshiba describes the technology: "Toggle … Read more

Beyond the devastating loss of life and property, the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week are likely to shorten the supply and increase prices of key electronic components, according to a report released yesterday by IHS iSuppli.

Most of the factories for the major electronics makers managed to escape severe damage as they were located far enough away from the epicenter of the quake and the areas affected by the tsunami.

However, the disaster has severely affected the country's transportation and power grids, leading to problems shipping and receiving parts, getting people to work, and maintaining production.… Read more

Wondering what makes that iPad 2 you just got tick and how much faster it is than the original iPad? Anandtech, iFixit, iosnoops, and UBM TechInsights have provided some answers.

Processor performance: Let's address this first--for obvious reasons. Apple has already been very public about the dual-core 1GHz A5 processor--a step up from the single-core chip in the original iPad--and the chip's "up to 9X faster" graphics" (Apple's ad copy).

And the verdict from an independent review? "CPU [Central Processing Unit] performance...we found to be a healthy 50 percent faster than the … Read more

Intel's deep commitment to flash memory technology was on display today with two announcements centered on large business customers.

The world's largest chipmaker announced it was a lead investor in a company that makes flash storage more palatable to the enterprise, while Hitachi announced the fruits of joint flash development with Intel aimed at large businesses.

As part of 18 new investments by Intel Capital totaling $77 million, the world's largest chipmaker led a group that invested $32 million in Anobit. The Israel-based company has patented technology that increases the long-term reliability of lower-cost-per-bit flash memory, referred … Read more

The iPhone and competing mobile gadgets are chewing up stock of NAND flash memory, which will lead to shorter supply and higher revenue for NAND manufacturers this year, according to a report Wednesday from iSuppli.

Thanks to the popularity of the iPhone and the launch of a slew of other portable gadgets, the number of mobile handsets with NAND flash memory will rise 13.8 percent this year to 732 million units from 643 million last year. The growth rate was 1.6 percent in 2008, said iSuppli.

NAND, a type of nonvolatile memory that retains its data even when the device is powered off, is commonly used in cell phones, MP3 players, USB drives, and memory cards. It is also found in solid-state storage drives, which are increasingly being used in notebooks. NAND stands for "not and" and describes the type of logic circuit used in these chips.

Apple has traditionally been one of the industry's heaviest users of NAND. Recently, one analyst said he'd heard estimates that about 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's NAND supply goes to Apple. The company has also cut deals with NAND suppliers such as Toshiba to prepay for more flash memory than it currently needs in anticipation of rising prices.

Combine the 35.2 gigabytes of NAND used in each iPhone with the fact that iPhone shipments are likely to hit 33 million this year, and the industry is facing periods of NAND undersupply this year, noted iSuppli. Such demand is good news for manufacturers and suppliers, who may see global NAND flash sales rise to $18.1 billion this year, up 34 percent, from $13.5 billion last year. In 2009, revenue was up 14.8 percent.… Read more