Sidney

Company says users will see a 50-percent performance boost.

Samsung Electronics announced a breakthrough in flash memory for mass storage this week with a 4GB flash device in a 70-nanometer chip.

The 70nm chip will replace the 90nm chip that held 2GB, and it will allow for 50 percent higher performance, writing at 16 megabits per second. The performance boost will eventually give users the ability to store high-definition video images.

The company is producing the flash in volume now and is ramping up from 4000 wafers per month in June to 15,000 per month by the end of the year.

Although some industry experts claim that flash may someday replace rotating disk drives, even in laptop computers, Nathan Brookwood, senior analyst at Insight 64, called that possibility a "fantasy."

"Every time the solid-state industry gets up there, then the rotating-storage guys reduce the cost per byte or the form factor," Brookwood said. "That's what keeps the disk-drive guys in business," he added.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121150,00.asp

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Opteron 165 (2) @2.85 1.42 vcore AMD Stock HSF + Chill Vent II