Toshiba Readies High-Capacity Memory for Smartphones

The new 19-nanometer manufacturing process is the smallest yet to create flash memory chips that store images, music and other data on mobile devices. The process allows more memory to fit in the same area of silicon, which can mean higher-capacity chips in the same space and at roughly the same cost.

Conversely, it's also possible to make cheaper, smaller memory chips at a given capacity.

With smartphones increasing taking the role of media players, higher capacity memory will make it easier to store whole music collections and high definition videos on the devices. Improving video recording capabilities also quickly fill onboard memory.

The constant shrinkage of manufacturing processes is what drives "Moore's Law", which predicts that the number of transistors on a silicon chip doubles every two years. This has accurately modeled progress for more than 50 years, and should continue through this decade.

But, at some point scientists will hit the physical limits of miniaturization, and substantial technological developments will be required to carry densities and processing power farther.

IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture of Intel and Micron, announced their own 20-nanometer process last week.