Flashback—A Story of Flash Memory

[Recorded: April 16, 2009]
Through the late 1980s, branded microprocessors were getting all the credit in consumers' eyes for the rapid improvement in computing power. However the development of flash memory technology offered a pivotal leap forward in storage capability that enabled an equally significant revolution in mobile personal computing devices, including PDAs, mobile phones, GPS devices, hand held gaming and media players.

Fujio Masuoka developed the flash memory cell at Toshiba, Japan in 1984. The industry's first commercially successful flash memory products emerged from a skunk works team at Intel in 1988. With later enhancements by SanDisk, Samsung and others, flash remains today's most widely used non-volatile memory (NVM) technology form.

This CHM Soundbytes features a panel discussion with the team that conceived Intel's NOR-type flash memory and brought it to market: Program Director Dick Pashley, Technologist Stefan Lai, Chip Designer Niles Kynett and Marketing Manager Bruce McCormick. Together they tell the story of Intel's flash memory work and how their skunk works produced an industry-leading standard. CHM's Jeff Katz from the Museum's Semiconductor Special Interest Group (SIG) hosts this panel of flash memory pioneers.

Catalog Number: 102695109
Lot Number: X5280.2009