Samsung Electronics announced today that it has begun shipping samples of an 8 GB memory chip to major mobile electronics manufacturers - the highest density embedded flash memory developed to date.

Samsung's high-density moviNAND memory solution consists of four 50-nanometer, 16 Gigabit NAND flash memories, a high-speed MultiMediaCard (MMC) controller and associated firmware. It can store up to 2,000 songs or enough map data to implement global positioning system (GPS) and points of interest for the entire western world. In addition, it can also be used with removable media cards to permit virtually unlimited memory expansion.

Because Samsung's moviNAND allows NAND flash to be instantly accessed through a standardized MMC interface, manufacturers who use the new memory solution can develop mobile phones more quickly and at less cost than with raw MLC NAND components soldered into a handset.

While providing twice the capacity and provides double the performance of the 4 GB version, Samsung's moviNAND is 10-20 percent smaller than other flash-based embedded memory card solutions. The new moviNAND also processes data at 52 megabytes per second, using the industry's fastest multimedia card interface.

Samsung's moviNAND solution provides high-density, high-speed, low-noise interference and increased security, making it an attractive storage solution for mobile handsets with high content services such as music phones and personal navigation. Moreover, increasing industry demand for secure and stable data is driving greater adoption of embedded data storage solutions.

Samsung's moviNAND memory observes the eMMC standard jointly developed by JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) and MMCA (MultiMediaCard Association) for embedded flash memory applications. Widespread industry support for MMCA standardized card technology underscores the potential for broad industry acceptance of the new moviNAND solution. Samsung expects the market for moviNAND to reach an accumulated sales volume of $4 billion by 2010.

Samsung plans to begin mass producing its 8 GB moviNAND in the second quarter of this year. The high-density solution, which is based on Samsung's advanced monolithic high-density NAND technology, will expand Samsung's line of moviNAND memory from 512 MB to 8 GB.