Micron announces new 34nm NAND chips

Pretty much confirming rumors of an impending update to Intel’s SSD lineup, Micron announced today it has begun mass-production of 16Gb and 32Gb multi-level cell NAND chips using a 34nm process. According to the company, its newly-designed 32Gb multi-level cell (MLC) NAND chip is 17 percent smaller than its first-gen counterpart, while the 16Gb chip measures only 84mm squared.

The process shrink and tiny footprints will enable customers to provide more cost-effective, high-capacity storage in small form factor products. As far as performance goes, both 16Gb and 32Gb products feature an ONFI 2.1 synchronous interface that delivers transfer speeds of up to 200MB/s. Micron is also sampling 8Gb and 16Gb single-level cell (SLC) NAND chips using its 34nm process technology, which are expected to feature even faster write speeds, lower power consumption and higher cell endurance.

The official press release only confirms the MLC chips will be used in a variety of Lexar memory products, but an announcement from its partner Intel can't be far off now.