Toshiba has developed what it claims is the world's fastest device controller for embedded NAND flash memory modules compliant with the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver.2.0 and UFS Unified Memory Extension (UME) Ver.1.0 standards defined by JEDEC Solid State Technology Association (JEDEC).

Samsung Electronics Co said a memory chip plant being built in China will start operations as planned in the first half of 2014 and the company will remain flexible about further investment in the factory.

The dynamics of the solid-state state drive market are shifting, and for Abhi Talwalkar it's been a disappointing shift in 2013.

Solid-state drive adoption will continue to grow and it will be more than 10 years before it is ultimately replaced by a new memory technology, experts said.

The two companies have reached an agreement to share patents for chipmaking technologies.

Toshiba said it will soon begin mass producing a new type of 64Gbit NAND flash that is the smallest and fastest in its class, though it still lags rival Samsung Electronics in the development of an even denser flash technology.

Increased spending in NAND and flash by Micron, LEDs by Philips and Osram, and continued investments by Globalfoundries will create new opportunities for equipment and materials suppliers in Southeast Asia.

Industry consolidation to just three big DRAM suppliers and a reduction in capital expenditures among these manufacturers helped propel DRAM average selling prices (ASPs) up 13% year over year in January. Capex budgets are also being trimmed for NAND flash (though not nearly as much as DRAM), and that, along with ongoing unit demand, has put upward pressure on ASPs for these memory devices as well.

Toshiba has subsequently brought this high level performance to its original microcontrollers and to ARM core-based microcontrollers. The newly-developed NANO Flash-100 achieves a zero-wait cycle during random access at 100MHz operation.

The M500 SSD utilizes Micron's 20nm multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash to achieve terabyte-class capacity and enable a new level of SSD price competitiveness; the 960GB Crucial M500 SSD will be initially priced under US$600.

Memory maker Spansion, which reported strong second-quarter earnings today, has an "aggressive" roadmap to boost its product-introduction rate and break its latest design-win record.

Toshiba's first-quarter operating profit is expected to exceed JPY10 billion (US$127.9 million), the Nikkei reported, more than double the profit recorded in the same period a year earlier.

Micron Technology has acquired Intel's 18% interest in IM Flash Singapore and the assets of IM Flash Technologies located at Micron's Virginia wafer fab. At the same time the scope of the JV between Intel and Micron has been expanded to include certain emerging memory technologies and Intel has prepaid US$300 million against future purchases of NAND flash memory.

LSI has announced several demonstrations of its SandForce SF-2000 flash storage processors using Toshiba 19nm and Intel 20nm NAND flash memory - the most advanced flash memory technology currently available for SSD applications.

Spansion's five-year technology roadmap includes 1Gb-8Gb SLC NAND solutions on 4Xnm technology today, 3Xnm technology by end of 2012 and 2Xnm in 2014.

Researchers have revealed details of a promising way to make a fundamentally different kind of computer memory chip.

Toshiba has predicted profit will rise 83% as sales recover from a slump caused by the strong yen, falling prices and natural disasters.

Intel and Micron Technology have entered into agreements to expand their NAND flash memory joint venture relationship. The agreements include a NAND flash supply agreement for Micron to supply NAND products to Intel and agreements for certain joint venture assets to be sold to Micron.

Mark Durcan became interim CEO hours after Appleton died Friday, in accordance with Micron's bylaws. Micron's board wasted no time in making the job permanent Saturday, ensuring no gap in leadership at the top of a company that employs 6,000 people in the Treasure Valley.

Price declines accelerated in the latter part of the fourth quarter, CFO Judy Bruner said on a conference call. That, along with lower orders from some mobile-phone customers, will hurt sales in the first quarter, she said.

Marvell Friday launched what it's calling the industry's first PCI Express (PCIe) NAND flash controller, which it describes as a building block that allows solid state drive (SSD) and system manufacturers to scale products up or down in capacity and performance using commodity hardware.

Samsung Electronics has won government approval for its plans to set up a memory-chip factory in China.

Micron Technology has posted a net loss of US$187 million, or US$0.19 per diluted share, on net sales of US$2.1 billion for the company's first quarter of fiscal 2012 (ended December 1, 2011).

Apple is reportedly going to use part of its enormous pile of cash to buy an Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage solutions.

20nm seems to be the new cutting-edge process for memory production, but Intel and Micron might be surprised to find Hynix has just surpassed them. The Korean manufacturer has used the IEDM to announce it has managed to manufacture middle-1Xnm-generation NAND flash.

The firm unveiled the chip at a recent exhibition hosted by the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.

Viking Technology has launched the ArxCis-NVTM DRAM memory module, which the company said can automatically detect I/O interrupts and back up data to NAND flash prior to an outage.

The Japanese semiconductor industry, which has been in decline for more than 20 years, needs to select key technology areas and refocus to rise again, Junshi Yamaguchi, former chairman of Renesas Electronics, told the International Electronics Forum being organized here.

Fusion-io has released the first upgrade to its in-server NAND flash card, the ioDrive2, doubling the card's speed, bandwidth and density, while maintaining its resiliency and endurance.

While many experts have expressed doubts about the ability of flash memory to scale and indicated the need for an alternative non-volatile memory technology, Hynix has just gone ahead and produced a 15nm NAND flash memory cell which it plans to unveil at this year's International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

SandForce has announced the first public demonstration of its SSD controllers working in concert with Toshiba's 24nm MLC NAND flash for SSD applications. SandForce also revealed that to data, it has shipped well over two million SSD controllers.

A single SuperScale controller equipped Z-Drive R4 is capable of transferring up to 2800 megabytes per second (MB/s) and completing over 500,000 input-output operations per second (IOPS), while a dual SuperScale controller card reaches an astounding 5600 MB/s and 1.2 million IOPS.

Kingston Technology has announced it is shipping the HyperX SSD, its first SATA Rev. 3.0 6Gb/s solid-state drive. The Kingston HyperX SSD features the latest SandForce controller and is designed for enthusiasts, gamers and performance users.

Toshiba has said that operating profits for the fiscal quarter fell 88% as the earthquake hit its power operations and a strong yen bit into earnings, and it kept its annual forecast in line with expectations.

Toshiba President Norio Sasaki also said the company is gaining on South Korea's Samsung Electronics in terms of flash memory global market share, though warned that the rivalry could undercut prices.