SanDisk is preparing a new process for the manufacture of flash, bringing NAND units down to a miniscule 43nm. This shrinkage will allow for significantly denser chips, allowing double the density per unit compared to existing processes. Supposedly they'll start shipping them out in the second half of this year, so they might have an impact on flash based products very soon.

SSDs and thumb drives around the world will benefit from this shrink, on top of allowing SSDs to further increase data density making them even more attractive as replacements for mechanical disks. On top of that, this change can also help reduce the power draw of already power-friendly flash based storage.