Memory chip makers are about to offer more sophisticated
flash drives for smartphones similar to the technology that will be comparable
to the solid-state drives found in laptops today.
Smart phones use flash drives, which use unsophisticated
techniques for reading and writing data. Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron's memory group
said the technology is not very different from that used in basic cell phones
or digital cameras “raw NAND”.
But he thinks that everyone will move to managed NAND.
Currently this technology is used on basic flash drives and pricey solid-state
drives (SSDs) used in laptops and servers. It involves using sophisticated controller chips and
firmware, which manage how the data is read and recorded.
Shirley did not think that smart phones will necessarily
reach this level of sophistication but it would begin to approach it. The iPhone uses raw NAND with a separate controller to
boost performance. But even Apple is looking at getting better performance,
Shirley said.