Samsung introduces world's first V-Nand Flash Memory

Although I am not an engineer by training, I have a healthy respect for the role that semiconductors play as basic building blocks for the computers, smart devices and digital networks that together comprise our emerging information age. This week Samsung announced, as reported in the Joongang Daily and other papers, that it "... has begun mass producing the industry’s first three-dimensional (3-D) Vertical NAND flash memory whose innovative structure has made reliability up to 10 times better and doubled write performance and capacity of conventional 20 nanometer NAND flash memories."  The device itself, as pictured in the accompanying graphic (click to see a larger version) looks much like many other chips.  However, that appearance belies its strong capabilities and vast improvement over existing NAND memory chips.
As the Joongang Daily article notes," The new chip the size of a fingernail has a capacity of 128 gigabits (Gb), meaning it is able to accommodate 128 billion units of memory storage. Although the size is same as that of Intel and Micron chips, which still use planar NAND technology, most notable achievement for Samsung is the proprietary vertical interconnect process technology that can stack as many as 24 cell layers vertically." The innovation is expected to be a stepping stone toward realization of a 1 terabit NAND Flash memory chip within five years. Samsung will initially supply the new chip to data centers, but plans to use it soon in smartphones and tablets as well.