Samsung has announced that it is ready to begin production of its fastest ever Flash memory chips.

The 16GB Nand Flash memory is double the speed of Samsung's previous products, as it increases the read size the chip can handle from 2KB to 4KB.

This boosts read speeds to double that of 2KB designs and increases write speeds by 150 per cent.

"By nearly doubling the overall performance of Samsung's MLC Nand, mobile consumers will enjoy faster data transfer speeds when storing or reading large data files whether they're using an external memory card, or a handset with a built-in Flash solution," said the company.

The chips are expected to be popular with consumer electronics manufacturers since they would allow for faster music and video playback times.

The chips are also Samsung's first to be manufactured using 50nm technology. By using smaller transistors the company estimates it can significantly cut power consumption from the chips, which would be an added bonus for manufacturers.