Korea-based Samsung and US-based server manufacturer Sun Microsystems have recently developed a chip based on the new 8Gbit SLC (Single Level Cell) NAND flash memory technology, which is exclusively designed for use in computer server SSD (Solid State Drives), EE Times reported on July 17. The new memory chip is expected to enter commercialization by year-end 2008.

The new flash memory chip enables the number of data read/write cycles to increase fivefold to 500,000, in comparison to the 100,000 cycles achieved by the existing SLC chips. The new chip's read/write performance is also considerably better than the high-capacity MLC (Multi-Level Cell) chips, which can only reach a maximum of 10,000 cycles.