Toshiba and Sandisk will boost flash production.

JAPANESE ELECTRONICS GIANT Toshiba is building a state-of-the-art Fab 5 for NAND flash in Yokkaichi.

It is working with Sandisk on the building which is due to be completed in the spring of 2011.

Apparently both companies forked out on the new fab building to meet increased demand for NAND flash memory used in mobile devices and solid state disk (SSD) drives.

The two-phase construction should increase supply and drive down the prices of SSDs. At the moment SSDs are still a relatively nascent technology and the relatively low volumes manufactured make them expensive.

The partners' Fab 5 building is being designed with a quake-absorbing structure and also to reduce environmental impact.

"Constructing the new facility assures our ability to respond to continued strong demand in the NAND flash memory market," said Toshiba SVP Kiyoshi Kobayashi.

"With our partner Sandisk, we will increase the manufacturing capacity gradually in accordance with market conditions, in a way that further enhances our competitiveness in the memory business," he continued.

"Today's agreement builds on a successful ten-year partnership with Toshiba that has led to the development of eight generations of industry-leading multi-level cell NAND flash memory, " said Sandisk chairman and CEO Eli Harari. µ