Professor Fujio Masuoka?s Passion and Patience Toward Flash Memory

The main feature of Flash Memory is that it can retain data when the power is shut down, which is an indispensable part of a modern electronic system. System designers benefited greatly when the electrically erased and programmed nonvolatile Flash Memory became available. DRAM has been mainly used for the main memory to store the data and program in the computer. DRAM is fast, however, it can no longer retain data when the power is shut down. It is called a volatile memory. Therefore, personal computers have external storage devices of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) at any cost. This replacement of HDD by Flash Memory has been just got started. Flash Memory has a variety of advantages; low cost, light, low power (eco-friendly), vibration free, and resistant to moisture, etc. These good points of Flash Memory have innovatively produced a digital camera, cellular phone, and removal storage card. And now, Solid State Disk (SSD) has been fed directly into a computer in the replacement of HDD.