4rt43rt4t4t4teraseFlash memory was invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka while working for [[Toshiba]] in [[1984]]. According to [[Toshiba]], the name 'Flash' was suggested by his colleague, Mr. Shoji Ariizumi, because the erasure process of the memory contents reminded him of a flash of a [[camera]]. Dr. Masuoka presented the invention in the [[IEEE]] 1984 Integrated Electronics Devices Meeting held in San Jose, California. [[Intel]] saw the massive potential of the invention and introduced first commercial NOR type flash chip in [[1988]]. It has long erase and write times, but has a full address/data (memory) interface that allows [[random access]] to any ___location. This makes it suitable for storage of program code that needs to be infrequently updated, such as a computer's [[BIOS]] or the [[firmware]] of set-top boxes. Its endurance is 10,000 to 1,000,000 erase cycles. NOR-based flash was the basis of early flash-based removable media; [[Compact Flash]] was originally based on it, though later cards moved to the cheaper NAND flash.
NAND flash from [[Samsung]] and [[Toshiba]] followed in [[1989]]. It has faster erase and write times, higher density, and lower cost per bit than NOR flash, and ten times the endurance. However its I/O interface allows only [[sequential access]] to data. This makes it suitable for mass-storage devices such as [[PCMCIA|PC card]]s and various [[memory card]]s, and somewhat less useful for computer memory. The first NAND-based removable media format was [[SmartMedia]], and numerous others have followed: [[Multi Media Card|MMC]], [[Secure Digital]], [[Memory Stick]] and [[xD-Picture Card]]s.
