Toshiba reveals 32GB flash for phones, PMPs

Toshiba tonight upgraded its onboard flash memory with a new, 32GB module destined for smaller portable devices. The storage combines eight 4GB NAND flash chips built using a smaller 43 nanometer manufacturing process and makes a single package, fitting twice as much capacity into a similar space as before. The design also builds in its own controller to manage its data traffic and would let device makers drop the new package in without reengineering their hardware.

The combined storage is explicitly intended for cellphones, portable media players, video cameras, and other devices where a large amount of storage is necessary in one package. Toshiba doesn't name individual customers, but is a key supplier of Apple and through the design would enable a 32GB iPhone as well as a 64GB iPod touch. Toshiba also produces its own electronics, including Gigabeat media players, and frequently sells its memory for competitors and manufacturers of MMC and SD cards.

The Japan-based company will start offering samples of the enhanced memory to its clients in September and will start producing the design in bulk quantities during the fall. Release dates for products based on Toshiba's components will vary by the company but have historically started in the quarter following mass production.

Filed under: iPod, iPhone, industry, upgrades/storage, mobile phones
Other story tags: Toshiba, Gigabeat