Flash memory

Today's topic is flash memory.

Flash memory is a type of memory you use every day in your mobile devices. Most memory in your PC loses its data when the power is turned off. Flash memory, however, keeps its data even when the power is off. You have already experienced this: your MP3 player never loses its music files.

What is flash memory?

Flash memory is non-volatile, which means it does not need power to maintain the information stored in the chip. In addition, flash memory offers fast read access times (though not as fast as the volatile DRAM used for main memory in PCs) and better shock resistance than hard disks. (from Wikipedia)

Therefore, many applications use flash memory, such as storage in battery-powered devices like MP3 players, mobile phones, and PDAs. The external USB storage we use also contains flash memory.

Flash memory comes in two forms: NOR flash and NAND flash. The names refer to the type of logic gate used in each storage cell. Most flash memory we use to store data is NAND flash. NOR flash is used for running programs, like DRAM.

As you know, Samsung is the world's largest NAND flash memory chipmaker, with a market share of about 60%. The success of Apple's iPod expanded the flash memory market. So Intel plans to produce NAND flash memory with Micron, one of the memory manufacturers in the US.

Under Hwang's law, Samsung doubled its chip capacity every year from 1999, creating an industrial pattern named "Hwang's law" that overturned the previous "Moore's law," which had correctly observed that the number of transistors per integrated circuit would double every couple of years. (from the Korea Times)

Anyway, more and more information will be stored in flash memory in the future. Flash memory may eventually replace the hard disk.