Toshiba closes NAND flash gap

SAN JOSE: Japanese major Toshiba Corp has, during the first quarter of the current year, closed the NAND flash gap with industry pioneer Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., as per the rankings from iSuppli Corp. The firm has revealed that it posted the strongest performance amongst the top NAND flash suppliers, gaining 2.9 percentage points.

On the contrary, Samsung lost 1.3 points of share. As per sources, the only other supplier gaining share was Micron Technology Inc.

iSuppli stated that NAND flash proceeds worldwide rose to $4.36 billion during the first quarter, up 0.6 percent from $4.33 billion in the fourth quarter.

As anticipated, to reclaim share, Samsung on Monday announced that it would double its capital expenditure to enhance its capacity in semiconductor and flat-panel display manufacturing.

In addition, Samsung announced production of 20-nm-class NAND chips. Even as for whatever reason, Samsung did not indicate the exact process or technology node for the part.

Nevertheless, analysts consider that Samsung rolled out a 27-nm part, which is behind its competitors. Samsung stands behind Hynix (26-nm), IM Flash (25-nm), and SanDisk/Toshiba (24-nm).