Samsung Begins Productions of 64GB SSDs

June 26, 2007: Samsung is deftly pushing forward with it’s solid state drives (SSDs), announcing that it has kicked off production of its 1.8” 64GB notebook flash memory drive.

Targeting high-end ultra-portable notebooks, Samsung says the new drives can improve battery life by up to 20 percent and while other manufacturers such as Fujitsu and SanDisk have announced and deployed their own SSDs, Samsung has become the first to bring 64GB drives to production.

The 64GB SSD consists of 64 eight Gigabit (Gb) flash memory chips, and due to the use of 51nm process technology, much smaller components can be fabricated leaving each chip with circuitry 1/2500th the width of a human hair.

Samsung says it expects sales of SSD units to increase at 270 percent between now and 2010 to become the largest growth segment in the NAND flash industry.

“We see sharply increasing interest in SSDs among OEMs worldwide amid a growing push to launch premium SSD-based notebooks, particularly in the ultra-mobile category,” said Jim Elliott, director, flash marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

While still nightmarishly expensive, the industry enthusiasm behind SSDs should see the price drop rapidly over the coming few years.

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