According to Reuters, Samsung has announced new advancement in flash memory technology. They expect to be shipping new chips by late next year that will hold 32GB of flash memory. The high end of such things in current use for iPod type devices now is more in the range of 4GB.
Flash memory is especially good for portable music or video players for multiple reasons. Basically, flash memory does not involve moving parts. For one thing, that makes them much less prone to skipping than a spinning hard drive while you're out jogging. Also, this means that they use much less power. For example, my humble 256MB flash player will routinely run 10 hours on one cheap AAA battery.
There's no word on initial pricing for these chips, but typically I would expect them to be cheaper and last longer than a hard drive. Getting up north of 30GB means the ability to hold a pretty substantial music and even video library, perhaps up to 680 hours of music according to Samsung.
That's a whole lot of memory to carry around on a convenient portable device. It'll sure be a heller bunch of pictures in a digital camera.
Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
I'm salivating.
2 - Phillip Winn
The real question is: Can one of these chips be put inside an iPod nano? :-)
3 - Warren
I wonder if they'll just use this internally in a digital camera, and not require SD cards anymore? Keep the option for people who like to use them, but make it an option, not a requirement.
I want a 32GB SD card for my Pocket PC.
4 - John
I had an early 32GB beta version. I had all my music, some games and some videos (hehe). I was admiring how small it was between my thumb and finger when it slipped out and bounced when I dropped it and fell into a crack never to be seen again! Only one of 3 in the world and I had to lose it! LOL - Acutally this will be great because then 8GB versions will appear in Best Buy for $29 after rebates! yeah!!