3bits per cell NAND Flash coming

Intel and Micron are about to introduce a new type of cheaper flash memory, a Multi Level Cell (MLC) technology that stores three bits per cell instead of the usual two. This is good to lower price and increase the capacity of the chips substantially but may cause adverse effects in the number of cycles the Flash chip can endure.
It will also be slower to write to than the current 2-bit MLC Flash, which should be fine for some applications but may cause performance problems when used in SSD drives.
Normal MLC chips can store four different values per cell, these new chips will be able to store eight different values, which translates into two times the capacity per chip. The extra capacity allows for extra redundancy, which may help make up for the larger error ocurrance in the cells - this, in turn, helps lower cost.

3bits per cell NAND Flash coming

Intel and Micron are about to introduce a new type of cheaper flash memory, a Multi Level Cell (MLC) technology that stores three bits per cell instead of the usual two. This is good to lower price and increase the capacity of the chips substantially but may cause adverse effects in the number of cycles the Flash chip can endure.
It will also be slower to write to than the current 2-bit MLC Flash, which should be fine for some applications but may cause performance problems when used in SSD drives.
Normal MLC chips can store four different values per cell, these new chips will be able to store eight different values, which translates into two times the capacity per chip. The extra capacity allows for extra redundancy, which may help make up for the larger error ocurrance in the cells - this, in turn, helps lower cost.

Micron Announces Breakthrough In Flash Memory Endurance

Micron’s new MLC Enterprise NAND device achieves 30 thousand write cycles – a 6x increase in endurance when compared to standard MLC NAND, according to the company. For enterprise applications that are more performance driven, Micron today also introduced a 34nm SLC Enterprise NAND device that achieves 300 thousand write cycles – a 3x increase in endurance when compared to standard SLC NAND.

These are good news indeed. It was already bad enough that MLC was typically only capable of enduring 10k erase cycles, the most recent Flash memory had dropped that value to half of that: 5k.
Increasing the endurance of MLC Flash to 30k erase cycles will allow for a much increased reliability without the need to resort to expensive SLC Flash, something that has been relegated to drives like the Intel X25-E or the OCZ Vertex-EX. This is also an important enchancement that will allow better chances of 3-bit per cell MLC NAND to be used in SSDs and devices that require more resilience than your typical thumb drive or portable media player.
Micron has a partnership with Intel to produce NAND Flash, so it's likely that this technology will soon make it's way to the highly awarded X25-M drives and others like the cheaper OCZ Agility - which, among other brands, also make use of Intel made NAND chips.

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Computer turndown no surprise

So the analysts are saying computers are going to decline in volume shipments this quarter, for the first time in ages. I'm not surprised. The circumstances are probably worse for the IT industry than they were last time this happened, in 2002.

The people who make these things have made computers that work. That was, on reflection, a bad move.

Think about it. In this report the BBC quotes people saying that replacement computers, if they slow down, aren't the same priority that they would be if the economy were doing better.

Maybe. But I can't help noticing that the iMac I'm using at the moment is working fine, almost as it did on day one. It works. And even more unusually for a 15-month-old computer, it's a current model.

This is good for me. It's good for Apple's reputation, and I know other manufacturers are churning out boxes that are equally reliable. But even if the economy were zipping along like anything I don't think I'd want to replace it - there's no need. This is lousy for Apple's bottom line.

And this is where computer makers are going to struggle even when the world economy recovers. People have become wise to buying systems that only just cover their needs, they now want more because they see their needs will change. And they're buying accordingly, then not upgrading for years.

It's wise purchasing, that's all. And it's going to hammer an industry that was reliant on either organic growth (forget it, the installed base is now established) or upgrades for its viability very hard indeed.

AMD's Upcoming Phenom II X2 555 BE Overclocked to 6.6GHz

Complete with Youtube video of the feat, which was made possible with the help of some liquid nitrogen(LN2). 6.6GHz, unlocked to quad-core.

The AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition is the successor to the well known Phenom II X2 550, which has made its rounds through the online media a while ago, due to the ability that some samples have of being unlocked to a full Phenom II X4.

This new X2 555 model is available in the AM3 form factor - which also works in AM2+ compatible motherboards - and has a clock of 3.2GHz, 6MiB of L2 cache and an HT link @ 4 GHz. Being a Black Edition CPU, it comes with no cooling fan and an unlocked multiplier.

This overclock was achieved on a Biostar TA785GE 128M motherboard, full with the unlocking to a Phenom II X4.
Biostar has been building some of the best overclocking motherboards out there and the rumor mill whispers that this is because the legendary Oskar Wu has moved there when he departed DFI.
Below, the video of windows booting. Notice that the CPU is based on the new C3 revision of the Phenom II core: