Built around the SandForce SF2281 controller, the MSA720 SATA III 6Gb/s mSATA solid state drive recently released by Transcend is one-eighth the size of a traditional 2.5 inch SSD.

Efforts to surpass oversupply issues, diversify technological models and recover contract price stability have combined to lead to a much healthier DRAM industry than in years past.

The rise of DDR4 DRAM has been expected for a while, as the new memory format has been researched heavily and used in laboratory environments, but production models have yet to be released. That will change in 2013, when Micron plans to begin selling DDR4 DRAM modules.

Toshiba, the company credited for employing the engineer who invented NAND Flash, is celebrating the technology's 25th anniversary by considering where the world would be if NAND Flash was never discovered.

In 2011, the worldwide semiconductor market experienced revenues of $301 billion, climbing 3.7 percent.

The fourth quarter of 2011 was a period of growth for the third and fourth largest NAND Flash manufacturers in the world, as the top two chip makers experienced a sequential decline during the period, a recent IHS iSuppli study found.

Prominent solid state drive brands, including Crucial, Intel, Kingston Technology and OCZ are rumored to be cutting SSD prices in an effort to push smaller manufacturers out of the market, industry sources in Taiwan told the DigiTimes.

Hardware manufacturer EMC has been working to implement more NAND Flash in its storage systems for a while, as it has already begun producing more servers equipped with solid state drive technology.

Computing has advanced substantially in the past decade, a recent Engineering & Technology Magazine report conceded, citing Intel chief executive Paul Otellini's presentation at last year's Intel Developer Forum.

Cloud computing has been rapidly rising as a key enterprise technology, as it allows organizations to access IT resources hosted in a remote data center through a pay-per-use model.

Simply sticking NAND Flash at the back of the storage array, filtering data to the DRAM on its way to the processor, is a waste of the advanced chip technology.

When NAND Flash was first invented by Toshiba's Fujio Masuoka sometime around 1980, the technology was introduced to a market that is far different than today's computing world. To a great extent, NAND Flash has brought about that change, eWeek reported.

While NAND Flash chips have been gradually revolutionizing the storage sector, Fusion-IO's David Flynn recently told Techworld the benefits of the technology go beyond storage and also include application workload acceleration capabilities.

The rising popularity and accessibility of USB 3.0 devices, eMMC systems and solid state drives are creating a major boom in sales for NAND Flash chips, Khein Seng Pua, chairman of Phison Electronics, said in a recent interview with DigiTimes.

NAND Flash is changing how data center managers store their data. Instead of putting it all on spinning disks with limited read and write speeds, they are increasingly using NAND Flash to boost performance, though they are not adjusting supporting architectures in response.

Phase change memory, a next generation computer memory format that could eventually usurp NAND Flash's role in devices, just got one step closer to realization.

Not too long ago, storage experts needed to understand how to establish SAN, NAS and disk-based storage systems.

The prices for NAND Flash-based solid state drives are rapidly declining, with major drops expected to begin in April and more widespread adoption to follow, CRN reported, citing industry sources.

Combining advanced speech recognition software with the unique capabilities of a memory array that combines NAND and NOR Flash has allowed Spansion and Nuance Communications to offer a sophisticated voice command system to automobile manufacturers, Reuters reported.

Material phase changes are becoming prominent in many sectors, with phase change memory emerging as a potential future solution in the semiconductor industry.

A new magnetic valve that allows for spintronics use in MRAM units has been developed by a team of researchers, headed by Florin Radu, a physicist at the Institute for Complex Magnetic Materials of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, R&D Magazine reported.

Fujistu recently announced the release of a new ferroelectric memory unit that will be capable of operating within a voltage range between 3.0 volts and 5.5 volts, providing inherent design elasticity that will allow the non-volatile memory unit to be deployed for both consumer and industrial uses.

The first examples of DDR4 DRAM were showcased at the recent International Solid-State Circuits Conference, and will likely begin hitting the server market in 2013 before becoming mainstream during the middle of 2015, Tom's Hardware reported.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics have completed a major advance in ferrolectric memory that will allow manufacturers to use a short electrical burst to switch the magnetic properties of the material sandwich within the module, Nanowerk reported.

Everspin recently demonstrated its advances in the magnetic RAM sector by displaying its spin torque MRAM module at the Embedded World conference in Germany, Electronics Weekly reported.

Resistive RAM is rapidly emerging as a future memory solution.

Samsung recently showcased a new PRAM memory module built to the 20nm specification at the ISSCC conference, SemiAccurate reported.

NAND Flash chips can be as advanced and well-designed as manufacturers can make them, but without adequate controller technology, their performance and reliability will be severely limited.

Solid state drives are quickly becoming more popular in a diverse range of sectors, but are still too expensive to become mainstream storage devices.

The rise of NAND Flash-based solid state drives has been happening for almost a decade now, as the technology has been gradually taking hold of the server, storage, and PC markets, eWeek reported.

Businesses are facing an overwhelming amount of data entering their storage and operating environments, forcing them to invest in advanced technologies that support innovation.

The solid state drive sector is becoming highly competitive and complex. This is giving businesses that make their own NAND Flash a major edge over their competitors, the SSD Review reported.

While solid state drive costs are gradually declining, they are still more expensive than hard disk drives.

A recent job post from SanDisk indicates that the company may be working to develop a memory solution using resistive RAM, the Bright Side of News reported.

Intel is close to releasing a new solid state drive designed to act as system cache alongside its Ivy Bridge processors, VR-Zone reported.

The data center sector is facing major problems when it comes to environmental efficiency.

The physical configuration of mobile memory chips can become so complex and varied from one manufacturer to another that properly testing different modules can present significant difficulties.

Rumors are flying around the semiconductor sector that Kingston plans to slash the prices on its consumer NAND Flash devices, including thumb drives, solid state drives and memory cards.

The rising popularity and accessibility of NAND Flash technology is combining with a growing need for better storage performance to create an environment in which many organizations are expected to upgrade the memory in their storage infrastructure, ChannelPro reported.

During the past few years, advances in processing technology have outpaced most other hardware enhancements.

Processors, DRAM, video cards and most other PC components have witnessed significant advances in the past few years.

While MLC NAND Flash has long maintaineda firm grip on the client market because of its low cost, write endurance and performance issues have kept it from gaining a hold in the enterprise.

While NAND Flash chips are still much more expensive per gigabyte than hard disk technology, solid state drives can still end up being less expensive that hard drives in storage arrays, InformationWeek reported.

With mobile devices gradually taking market share away from desktop and laptop PCs and NAND Flash gaining a stranglehold on smartphones and tablets, the advanced memory format is eroding industry interest in DRAM and mobile RAM, Global Sources reported.

Classification of devices into consumer, enterprise, data center and other specific deployment areas has been happening for a while.

Samsung recently announced the beginning of production for a new memory system designed specifically for mobile devices.

Magnoresistive RAM is one of the next-generation technologies that is most prepared to hit the market.

Members of the Ferrolectric Memory Group and the Nanoelectronics Research Institute of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology recently completed the construction of a ferroelectric memory module, Nanowerk News reported.

At the recent CES 2011 conference, Toshiba showcased a new Flash drive that is poised to stretch the performance limitations of the technology and help take thumb drives to another level, DailyTech reported.

NAND Flash memory is consistently becoming less expensive, making the technology more accessible for end users in the business and consumer markets.

As more businesses invest in solid state drive technology in servers, storage arrays and some PCs, high-performance hard disk drives are becoming irrelevant, according to a recent ZDNet report.

As solid state drives become more advanced and create significant performance gains, the underlying controller infrastructures are becoming more sophisticated as well.

The storage side of the memory market experienced major shifts during 2011, as hard disk drives and NAND Flash-based solid state drives both saw significant upward momentum, TechTarget reported.

Simon Chen, chairman and CEO of Adata Technologies, recently predicted the DRAM market will begin to recover during the first half of 2012.

Hard disk drives are still significantly less expensive than solid state drives, but the SSD industry could be close to a major breakthrough as the cost of SSDs is falling faster than HDD prices, according to a recent chart released by Pingdom, Tom's Hardware reported.

After a shaky 2011, the NAND Flash sector has significant potential for growth moving into 2012, a recent DRAMeXchange study found.

The week ending on December 16 witnessed a 20 percent rise in spot sales prices for white-branded 2 GB DDR2 DRAM units, a recent inSpectrum study found.

Resistive RAM, one of the technologies emerging as a successor to NAND Flash, recently received a boost when Imec showcased a new module at the recent 2011 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, the EE Times reported.

NAND Flash is rapidly becoming a more mainstream memory format.

Texas Memory Systems recently put its first high-availability NAND Flash array on store shelves. The device offers enough redundancy to ensure that there is no single point of failure, creating the availability needed to host mission critical applications, Computerworld reported.

The Ultrabook currently stands in a somewhat tricky position. It is significantly more expensive than traditional laptops, but lacks the pure performance gains needed to make the cost worthwhile, ZDNet reported.

Next year could see many businesses working to refresh their storage technologies, and solid state drives could be at the forefront of this movement, InformationWeek reported.

While the DRAM sector is currently facing slow sales and a poor contract and spot sales pricing market, there is still potential in certain segments.

Many businesses are facing a deluge of data, which current memory technologies are struggling to handle.

The various memory technologies with the potential to follow NAND Flash into the market have witnessed significant evolutions in recent years, garnering more attention than normal for technologies that are still years away, TechTarget reported.

Distributed storage tiering, which is built on NAND Flash-based solid state drives, is positioned to be one of the most important technologies for the coming year, according to a recent InfoWorld report.

NAND Flash manufactured in the TLC format has the potential to make solid state drives so affordable that hard drives will quickly become obsolete, TechTarget reported.

Businesses technologies have experienced rapid innovation and growth in recent years, especially in terms of processors, memory and other hardware systems.

Patents are a major competitive point in the semiconductor industry, where having a technological edge over other organizations is key.

TLC NAND Flash is a memory format that is much less expensive than SLC or MLC chips. The emerging format has been discussed in many reports as the type of NAND Flash that could make solid state drives affordable for the average consumer.

Unity Semiconductor recently completed a major advancement in the non-volatile memory sector by developing a memory tile circuit design that resolves many of the power, sensing and cell selection issues faced with NAND Flash devices.

Speaking at a recent press event in Taipei, Gartner analyst Andrew Norwood said NAND Flash sales will surpass DRAM revenues before the end of 2014, DigiTimes reported.

Currently, cloud computing is a major threat to DRAM, as it allows users to turn to mobile devices and other similar platforms to run high-performance applications supported by servers in remote data centers.

The DRAM sector has been struggling during the past few months, as dwindling PC sales have led to fewer investments in the memory format.

Current memory systems are clearly divided into non-volatile and volatile technologies. Volatile memory is the fast, short-term format used for DRAM and other similar applications. Non-volatile technology is used for storage.

NAND Flash technology is the foundation for solid state drives, which are rapidly maturing into more robust and sophisticated storage platforms.

Enterprise storage demands are rapidly changing. In turn, a growing number of businesses are turning away from hard disk drives and investing more heavily in solid state drives, which are built on NAND Flash technology.

As consumer and enterprise storage needs are rising, the memory industry is experiencing a period of rapid innovation that could position it to meet changing storage needs.

Tablet PCs have been so successful, in part, because they use solid state drives capable of improving performance, durability and mobility.

At the beginning of 2011, most experts anticipated 2011 would be accompanied by strong sales in the semiconductor industry.

NAND Flash technology is revolutionizing storage. More businesses are deploying solid state drives, which are built on NAND Flash chips, and using the technology to improve storage performance dramatically.

A recent report from inSpectrum found that early September NAND Flash prices remained stable, experiencing a flat growth rate.

Businesses and consumers are using substantially more data on a day-to-day basis.

Solid state drives perform much better than hard disk drives in most storage deployment formats.

SSDs proving worth the price

The NAND Flash market is rapidly becoming more stable, as a recent inSpectrum study found NAND Flash spot prices are stabilizing because of renewed demand in the market.

The NAND Flash memory market has been declining slowly over the past few months in the wake of the natural disasters in Japan earlier in the year.

Researchers are the University of California, San Diego, and Cornell University recently discovered that NAND Flash memory modules have unique characteristics that can act as fingerprints

Solid state drives, which are built on a foundation of NAND Flash technology, are beginning to emerge as a key storage technology that has the potential to displace hard disk drives.

Despite some issues with oversupply through much of 2011, the NAND Flash sector is still positioned well to mature and expand during the next few years.

As more NAND Flash manufacturers begin releasing chips at the 25nm standard, the debate between synchronous and asynchronous models is becoming heated.

SanDisk recently announced the release of a new line of solid state drives aimed at the consumer market.

The video game industry, which has fallen slightly behind in terms of technology because of an extended console generation, could be a prime destination for NAND Flash growth.

DRAM has long held a prominent place as the primary form of computer memory. However, NAND Flash is rising fast and could soon gain hold over the memory module market.

Transcend recently released a new portable solid state drive that boasts state-of-the-art capabilities and features the ability to connect to computers through USB 3.0 ports.

Samsung is trying to stay ahead of its competitors with the opening of a new NAND Flash memory chip facility in Nano City, South Korea.

SuperTalent Technology recently announced the availability of a new SATA III SSD aimed at consumers looking to improve their machine's NAND Flash capability.

The new Macbook Air, which is rumored to be close to its final release date, is expected to feature advanced NAND Flash technology that almost doubles the speed of the current storage option in the ultra-thin laptop, Macotakara reports.

The processor, also known as the controller, is one of the most important differentiators between solid state drives.

NAND Flash chips and other foundational items in technological manufacturing have been somewhat scarce since earthquakes and the subsequent tsunami and nuclear power crisis hit Japan in March.

The NAND Flash manufacturing sector experienced a disappointing May that was supposed to be followed by a productive June.

IM Flash Technologies recently announced plans to hire more than 200 jobs at its Lehi, Utah, plant. An expansion of this size is a clear sign of growth potential in the sector.

While NAND Flash chip sales have been down due to oversupply and other similar factors, the semiconductor sector is still providing a strong backbone for the market.

The third fiscal quarter of 2011 proved challenging for Micron, as its DRAM and NAND Flash memory sales both declined during the period.

DDR3 memory modules are completely dominating the NAND Flash-based DRAM market as the technology is set to gain an 89 percent market share during 2011.

Sustainability is emerging as a key need in the data center and other IT sectors, and many companies are emphasizing energy efficient components in their product lines.

SanDisk's acquisition of Pliant Technologies is already having an impact on the company, which recently released its first major line of enterprise solid state drives, eWeek reports.

SSDs are a relatively young memory component based on NAND Flash technology. As a result, many perceptions have emerged about SSD reliability.

A rapidly expanding market for smartphones is leading to increased sales of NAND Flash technology.

The growing popularity of smartphones, tablets and other mobile computing devices should not lead manufacturers to focus exclusively on the sector.

Phase change memory, which could be the heir apparent to NAND Flash in the SSD market, recently experienced a major advance when researchers from the University of California, San Diego completed a solid state storage device using the technology.

While the past few months have been somewhat disappointing in the memory module manufacturing market, a recent iSuppli study found the industry is set to turn around and renew growth for the rest of the year and until 2015.

In the NAND Flash market, it is easy to see the growth of cloud computing and mobile technologies as a sign that traditional NAND Flash-based memory modules will eventually die out and be replaced by new technologies.

The second quarter of 2011 saw many changes in the NAND Flash market, but the industry still anticipates an overabundance of hardware, which will eventually lead to a price decline, the DRAMeXchange reports.

SanDisk's recent acquisition of Pliant Technology could help the company advance its investments in NAND Flash memory and create an enterprise-class SSD product line.

Texas Memory recently revealed a new PCI express chip capable of using NAND Flash to generate approximately 900 GB of memory.

The current meteoric growth pace for NAND Flash technology is expected to continue, at least through 2014, according to a recent Technavio report.

Manufacturers of NAND flash memory chips have scaled back their products to sub-30nm to meet demand, but are still awaiting approval from Apple, one of the largest users of the memory technology.

Solid-state drives aimed at the consumer market are poised to experience rapid growth by the end of next year, according to a new report recently released by Gartner.

Smartphone and tablet original equipment manufacturers are increasingly including NAND flash memory in their mobile devices, which is serving as a main driver for market expansion, according to a recent TechNavio report.

Toshiba catching up in NAND flash memory market

After experiencing its lowest profits in two years, South Korean electronics firm Samsung looks set to rebound, thanks to the recovery of the NAND flash memory chip market, according to a recent Arab News report.

Memory chip manufacturers SanDisk and Micron have seen their profits surge as demand for NAND flash memory soars, according to a recent report.

Flash memory manufacturer Super Talent recently announced the launch of a new line of solid-state drives.

Computer users once moved data from one place to another using a floppy disk. Today, USB memory sticks with NAND flash memory are commonplace and increasingly cheap.

Most NAND Flash memory chips are currently manufactured somewhere in the 20 to 30 nanometer range.

In an interview with EE Times India at the recent SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium, Micron president and chief operating officer, Mark Durcan, said the memory market will be mixed in 2011.