Computing · 1987

Flash memory

Chips that remember with the power off.

Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba invented flash, presenting NAND flash in 1987. It displaced film, floppies and much of the hard disk market; modern 3D NAND stacks over 200 layers.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

DRAM 1970
MOSFET 1959

What it led to 1

Smartphone 2007

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Cost of memory and storage Latest: Memory: 1.09k $/TB (2023) Source: Our World in Data

Mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people Latest: 112 per 100 people (2025) Source: Our World in Data