Toshiba announces 32nm NAND

TOSHIBA WILL START churning out bits of 32nm NAND Flash, with 32Gb and 16Gb chips (4GB and 2GB respectively) available as samples as of today.

The 32Gb products will hit Japanese shelves by July, a full two months ahead of schedule, whilst the 16Gb offerings will ship from the third fiscal quarter this year.

Tosh says it will begin by bunging its new 32nm process tech into the likes of memory cards and USB sticks, before moving on to embedded products.

The 32nm NAND flash chips will be produced at Toshiba's Yokkaichi plant in Japan which, back in January, saw an imposed 30 per cent reduction in production. Toshiba says the reduction will remain in place throughout the second quarter of the year as it continues to struggle with the industry-wide economic downturn.

The plant at Yokkaichi isn't the only one to see its productivity slashed, Toshiba has also revised production output at several of its other fabs, including its discrete and optoelectronics facilities.

Toshiba staff will also be subject to a temporary leave programme, whereby employees are asked to take significant unpaid time off in a company bid to conserve cash without laying off workers. µ