Toshiba celebrates 25th anniversary of NAND flash

The technology was first invented by employee Fujio Masuoka in 1987, and was given the name flash because the erasure process of the memory contents reminded a colleague of the flash of a camera. Since the first flash memory chips were made in the late eighties by the likes of Toshiba and Intel, the NAND flash market has grown rapidly, with flash memory shipping almost 8x more gigabytes in 2011 than DRAM. "NAND flash has truly permeated our lives - this technology has been a game changer, making the world a different place and making many of the products we use today possible," noted Scott Nelson, vp, Memory Business Unit, Toshiba America Electronics Components. "The cost/performance of NAND flash continues to stand the test of time. NAND flash is leading the way to thin and light hardware, has made the mobility of content possible, and is enabling 'green' storage in the data centres." Toshiba's commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the invention of NAND flash is due to continue throughout 2012.