Hitachi Ltd and Mitsubishi Electric Corp have jointly developed a 256Mb flash memory chip, the largest currently available – which is expected to go into volume production early next year, a year ahead of similar chips from rival manufacturers such as Fujitsu Ltd. Reuters reports that the chip will be targeted at personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, digital consumer devices and as a replacement for hard drives in communications equipment. Hitachi will also launch Flash memory cards based around the new chips. However, Flash memory is currently more than twice the price of equivalent dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip or chips, the 256Mb Flash memory chips are expected to be priced around $85 when shipped in 1999.
