Samsung has announced what it claims is the industry's first production of 20nm-class NAND chips for use in Secure Digital (SD) memory cards and embedded memory.

In a press release the outfit said that the introduction of 32Gb MLC NAND will expand the company's memory card solutions for smartphones, high-end IT applications and high-performance memory cards. It has started shipping SD card samples that are built with 20nm-class 32Gb NAND, and will expand production later in 2010. Memory cards based in the 20nm-class will be be in the shops in sizes that range from 4GB through 64GB.

Samsung has been going great guns lately. It only released 30nm-class NAND chips last year. Samsung said its 20nm-class MLC NAND has a 50% higher productivity level than 30nm-class MLC NAND. A 20nm-class-based, 8GB and higher density, SD card is 30 per cent faster than the 30nm-class NAND.