Samsung will start producing 16 gigabit Nand Flash chips this year, nudging the memory technology towards use in notebook PCs and maybe even edging out hard drives in some products in the next few years.

Nand Flash is currently in products such as USB drives and digital cameras in capacities of up to 8GB. But increases in capacity will see it rival hard disks and DVDs as a medium for mass storage.

For mobile PCs - particularly thin-and-light models that do not require the larger hard drive capacities - the technology could extend battery life because solid-state Flash designs would be far more efficient than hard disks. Hardware design, durability and performance - particularly the boot-up sequence - would also be improved.

"I do think there's a role for Nand Flash in PCs," commented Joe Unsworth of analyst Gartner. "But for the foreseeable future, hard disks have cost advantages." Gartner estimates that 16GB Flash drives will cost from about $90 (£52) in 2007 but Windows Vista is likely to require much larger capacities. Claus Egge of research firm IDC added, "Flash is far from mature [enough to replace hard drives] but it could be competitive soon."

Another scenario sees Flash operating alongside hard disks to cache data and frequently-accessed applications to save on hard drive activity. Samsung last year demonstrated a drive that it said could add 30 minutes to notebook battery life. Intel also plans to use Flash on chipsets to accelerate performance.
In other storage news, Western Digital last week showed a 150GB Raptor hard drive with a window that makes internal drive operations visible for the first time.