33) Japan’s Original Technology – Flash Memory

  
The article from “Businessweek” magazine, reporting on the development and result of flash memory
(click to enlarge)


With its peak in the 1980s, Japan enjoyed the name of "memory powerhouse" and it’s "special product", flash memory. Fujio Masuoka, who was employed at the Toshiba ULSI Research Laboratories (later a professor at Tohoku University) succeeded in its development in 1980 and first presented his work at the International Electronic Devices Meeting (IEDM) in December 1984.

The origin of the name “flash” came from consulting with his colleagues, seeking for some catchy name to the audience of IEDM. The concept of collective or batch erasure was superimposed on an image of a flash of light.

The photograph is an article from the magazine “Businessweek” which conveys his accomplishment, but while highly appreciating Masuoka's creative achievement, it also included opinions of persons at Intel saying, "The manufacturing process is too complicated and not feasible". Seeing that Intel later created their own flash memory division and actively promoted this business, it is highly ironic.

At the time of development, Masuoka told me that "This type of memory will become the driving force of the semiconductor industry in the beginning of the 21st century." But if we look at the fact that it is shaking up the position of the hard disk as an information storage medium, his dream was a genuine “prophetic dream”.

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