Information / Electronics & Computing

Flash memory

Fujio Masuoka's flash memory (announced 1984) keeps data without power; it fills phones, cameras and solid-state drives.

Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba invented flash memory around 1980 and presented it in 1984; the name refers to erasing a whole block at once. It stores charge on a floating gate inside a MOS transistor, so the data survive without power. The cheaper NAND version (1987) made memory cards, USB sticks, smartphone storage and solid-state drives possible.