Toshiba’s new 64gb chip officially kicks off 64gb iPhone and 128 gb iPod Touch rumors

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

New Toshiba 64gb flash memory chip

Yesterday Toshiba debuted their biggest flash memory chip yet, a 64 gigabyte embedded NAND flash memory module. This is the star in a crown of six new chips coming from Toshiba in the spring of 2010 which are designed for the new e-MMC standard. Toshiba envisions these being used in “smartphones, mobile phones, netbooks and digital video cameras.”

Since iPhones already use Toshiba NAND flash memory, rumors are now being fueled with this new piece of the puzzle. Apple could easily drop the new 64gb chip into an iPhone, or even two into an iPod Touch which would create a 128gb device. According to Toshiba the new high-capacity 64GB embedded chips can record up to 1,070 hours of music at a 128Kbps bit rate, 8.3 hours of full spec high definition video and 19.2 hours of standard definition video. That is a lot of data to have quick access to in a pocket-sized gadget!

My 16gb iPhone fills up awfully fast, and for those of you who use your iPhone as a travelling media center this extra storage space would be much appreciated! And if the new generation iPhones are 4G their data speeds will be blindingly fast. There is even speculation that this chip could be used in the much-rumored Mac tablet. (Be still my beating heart!)

With this much storage available on your 64gb iPhone you may find yourself storing more data and doing more work directly on your iPhone. Hopefully Apple will use this extra space to allow for more apps! With over 100,000 apps in the App Store how are we supposed to limit ourselves to just 180 on eleven pages? Maybe Apple would even consider making the iPhone a mountable external drive, like the old iPods? That would be handy! Oh the possibilities….