emory this quarter. Some of the products which it hopes to include is the 8Gb (1 gigabyte) single-chip MLC NAND flash memory on 56nm process technology in the first quarter. In Q2-07, the company will introduce 56nm 16Gb (2 Gigabyte) NAND, which doubles the memory density per chip when compared to 70nm technology.

“With commencement of the 56nm technology, SanDisk is rolling out its fifth generation of MLC NAND flash memory,” said Dr. Randhir Thakur, SanDisk’s executive vice president of technology and worldwide operations. “The technology and design advances will help enable SanDisk products to offer approximately twice the improvement in write performance compared to the 70nm generation. We are pleased with the joint development of 56nm advanced technology with Toshiba, and expect it to become a production workhorse in Fab 3 during the second half of this year. We are executing according to plan and continue to make the captive Fabs highly cost-effective sources of flash memory for our expanding array of consumer products,” he added.