“Samsung Electronics Co. on Monday unveiled a new flash memory chip it says will double storage capacity on portable music players and other mobile devices,” The Associated Press reports. “Memory cards containing multiple 16-gigabit NAND chips mean ‘you will be able to take your entire music and personal video libraries with you,’ Chang-Gyu Hwang, president of the company’s semiconductor operations, told reporters.”
“For example, the company said that by combining 16 such devices on a memory card with a density of up to 32GB it would be possible to store 200 years worth of an average-sized daily newspaper, 8,000 MP3 music files or 20 DVD movies,” The Associated Press reports. “The company said it plans to begin mass producing the chips in the second half of 2006.”
Apple’s iPod nano 4GB uses NAND flash memory from Samsung.
[UPDATE: 4:05pm ET: updated headline to clarify potential 32GB max. storage potential.]
Full article here.
Advertisement: Apple iPod nano. 1,000 songs. Impossibly small. From $199. Free shipping.
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I’ll take some for my laptop please.
wonder if this will eventually spell the end of the HD-based iPod? I also wonder if the newer NAND chips will make the laptop HD obselete…interesting.
“For example, the company said that by combining 16 such devices on a memory card with a density of up to 32-gigabytes it would be possible to store 200 years worth of an average-sized daily newspaper, 8,000 MP3 music files or 20 DVD movies.”
iPod Video, here we come! At this rate, we won’t need hard drive pods for the video feat.
this is one of the reasons I am waiting to get my Nano.
4 gigs is so small… 16 will be great!
Sorry about the large text. Everytime I try to set up quotes, it enlarges my text.
So, does this mean my four-day-old nano is obsolete already?
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How big are these things??
iPod Nano the size of things to come! 40 GB in 1 year……
Re “Will it eventually spell the end of the HD based iPod…”
If trends continue for a number of years, it will eventually spell the end of the HD. Period.
Jeesh!
It’s not that many years ago that I bought the first 1 gig hard disk drive in my whole school board of 30 high schools to use as a server drive for all the students in my school. It cost a bundle. The computer consultant for the board though I was off my rocker and had made a huge mistake. It was the size of a concrete building block and weighed at least as much.
Now I carry 80 gigs around in my iBook all the time.
I predict the end of mechanical media. (hard disks and optical disks)
Looks like our little nano is going to grow up.
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For anyone who didn’t see the end of Hard Drives coming from the birth of solid state memory, even RAM if you think of it, was down right foolish.
No moving parts = practicality.
You can buy high density storage tape from Sony that can do 1 TERABYTE for only $100 or less. But why does no one buy this? With the tape it takes too long to cycle through all the information, not to mention it can easily tear, and the tapes are not exactly pleasant to carry around… low practicality.
Of course it will take time for solid state to reach the capacity that modern HD’s can do, and future HD’s will probably always have more storage than future Solid State, but a plateau will be reached when the mass consumer products are built using solely solid state, mainly, do to size and power efficiency.
That will be awesome to have a 30+GB nano. I’ll wait until that comes around. Until then my 3G 20GB will be fine, although it’s just about full.
I know that there are 8 bits in 1 byte, therefore a 16-gigabit chip contains 2 gigabytes of data. My question is how many of these 2-gigabyte chips can be contained in a single package?
Has no one thought of the simple idea that the 4 gigabyte iPod nano may already have two of these chips in it (and the 2 GB iPod nano has one)?
These chips are 16 gigabits (2 gigabytes). Two would make the 4 gigbyte for the iPod nano.
The images I have seen of the inside of the iPod nano would imply extremely few memory chips. Two would be about the right number.
cptnkirk & Dank:
Don’t write of mechanical media (HDs, optical, tape, etc.) too quickly.
People (especially the mythical “power users”) have gotten used to having 80-100+ GB in their laptops. It well be quite some time (think a decade or more) before solid state memory (e.g., flash) challenges in that range (especially on price).
Will mobile platforms of all kinds eventually go 100% solid state? Absolutely. But don’t expect the high end systems (e.g., high end laptops) to go 100% solid state within the next decade.
the ipod giga? the ipod massive? or just ipod fantastic?
Samsung is simply raising the barrier and it’s not going to stop any time soon. I think you’ll be seeing laptops converting at some level in 3 to 5 years, with 5 years being at the outer limit.
Now comes the usual “…or should I wait and buy the 32GB Nano later?” questions.
Either or, Samsung is extremely pleased. Demand for Flash is increased, meaning more manufacturing plants and therefor more plentiful supplies and eventual lower prices and even larger storage capacities.
So we are building up for a Nano-Notebook
It may have
1: Cool dual core Intel x86 based processors
2: Flash RAM combination hard drive
3: Long battery life, like a few days
4: No internal optical drive, the iPod Nano will be used instead. Cheaper later of course. (optional external blue-ray dvd/cd burner)
5: Twice as thick as a iPod Nano and “cool” as all hell.
“the ipod giga? the ipod massive?”
———-
The Lord Humongous Special Edition video iPod, exclusive to Australia, signed by Mel Gibson. Comes preloaded with all three Mad Max movies.
Oh yea
6: Always “on” operation, forget sleep.
http://gprime.net/video.php/ipodflea
And dont forget your iBrator
http://www.flamingmailbox.com/maccomedy/movies/ibrator.html
Being a Mac user, I (mw)”often” get plugged in the ass with the iBrator after buying an overpriced apple product…
Not going to happen in my estimation. 32Gig of NAND memory is going to take up the same physical dimensions as a mini HD and cost a hell of a lot more.
This does not mean that in the future, when Samsung is able to shrink the physical size of 32Gig (and lower the price) that Apple won’t produce a 32Gig Flash iPod. Just not in the foreseeable future.
I like the idea of a solid-state laptop. Less heat. Little damage if dropped.
Pretty cool. The nono-powerbook.
What’s the access speed on these new chips compared to standard RAM?
MW: ‘ahead’ look up ahead!
32 GB iPod nano by next year ain’t going to happen, people.
Why? The same reason the nano is 2 GB and 4GB capacities today, instead of the “reliable” rumors that Apple was going to introduce 4 GB and 8 GB flash iPods. Flash memory is still way expensive, and it’s the cost that limits how much you can practically cram into a device.
Secondly, the nano’s unique form factor limits the space. Just because you can theoretically put 16 of the new memory chips on one card for 32 GB doesn’t mean you can fit that card into a nano. There’s barely a free millimeter of space inside the nano case.
Let’s be realistic people. The nano is going to be super hot seller with only 2 GB or 4 GB. It will be 8-10 months before Apple will feel the need to update the nano to keep sales going. Does anyone really think Apple is going to go from 4 GB straight to 32 GB and miss out on selling devices with 8, 12, 16, and 20 GB capacities? It’s just not going to happen, no matter how cool such a device might be.
The next update will most likely feature nanos at 4 GB and either 6 or 8 GB. 16 GB is still 2 years away simply due to cost.
It’s nice to think of what’s possible, but all common sense seems to go right out the window sometimes, which leads to a frenzy of disappointment about what Apple was “supposed” to release. Learn from history, my friends.