Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) has announced that solid state drives (SSDs) built on the company's 19nm Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash technology are now readily available across Europe. Toshiba was the first company to develop 19nm NAND SSDs and the family includes the world's smallest and highest density NAND flash drives.

Toshiba's THNSNH family addresses the storage, performance and power efficiency demands of even the most data-intensive and energy-sensitive systems. The drives are ideal for high-end notebooks, tablets, PCs, all-in-one desktop computers and industrial PCs. Capacities of 512GB1, 256GB, 128GB and 60GB are all now available in 2.5-inch form factors with a choice of 7.0 mm and 9.5 mm profiles. mSATA modules with capacities of 256GB, 128GB and 60GB are also available.

Researchers at IBM have developed the smallest carbon nanotubule transistor, that is 9 nanometers (nm) across. In comparison, the smallest transistors possible using silicon is 10 nm across. IBM claims its new transistor consumes less power while being able to carry more current than today's technology.

"The results really highlight the value of nanotubes in the most sophisticated type of transistors," says John Rogers, professor of materials science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "They suggest, very clearly, that nanotubes have the potential for doing something truly competitive with, or complementary to, silicon." Currently, the smallest production-grade transistors are 22 nm across.