Intel and its partner Micron Technologies have announced their high-density, next-generation 32 Gigabite flash memory manufactured using 34-nanometer technology. The chips will be printed on 300mm wafers. The NAND memory device will enable the subsequent manufacturing of 256 GB flash drives for notebooks, in the 18" form factor. Subject to market volatility, the price for such a solid state hard drive will be around $1,000.

Intel competes with Toshiba, which recently announced a 43-nanometer manufacturing process for NAND flash recently. Also, Samsung last week announced 256GB solid state notebook drives for later this year.

Solid state drives are faster and consume less power. They are also much more reliable as they have no moving parts, and can withstand strong shocks with no significant damage. However, they are currently much more expensive than traditional, magnetic hard disks and are available in smaller capacities.

Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced early this month that they will develop a first pilot line using 450-millimeter wafers, which is to be operational by 2012. Under the new wafer dimensions, which has a surface of approximately 636,173 square millimeters, 2.25 more processors can be fit on a single wafer. This means that a stunning 6,000 Intel Wolfdale 45-nm Core 2 Duo CPUs could fit on a single 450-mm wafer.