Mainstream Magnetic Storage Gets The Boot

NAND In More Places
NAND will continue to find its way into more applications where other types of memory traditionally dominated. For example, cell phones will add more and more flash as they continue to become all-in-one devices that include a camera, camcorder, PDA, GPS, and so on.

“In addition to very rapid market growth and fast declines in motherboard prices, NAND flash continues to evolve and align specific functionality with the wide range of established and emerging flash applications,” says Lane Mason, memory market analyst, Denali Software.

“Unlike DRAMs, which all have marched lock-step to the PC-dictated roadmap, NAND serves many masters and applications, which all drive the features and technology in slightly different directions,” says Mason. “This will be the most exciting and opportunity-laden memory market for several years, until prices cease their rapid declines and the various flavors of NAND are identified and features stabilized.”

As the saying goes, if you can’t beat em, join ’em. So the next time I see you on an airplane, I know which hard drive I’ll be using in my laptop.