Detail map of 8, 2-chōme, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tōkyō-to, Japan Overview map of 8, 2-chōme, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tōkyō-to, Japan

A: 8, 2-chōme, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tōkyō-to, Japan

Fujio Masuoka Invents Flash Memory

Circa 1980
A disassembled USB flash drive. The chip on the left is flash memory. The controller is on the right.
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org
"A disassembled USB flash drive. The chip on the left is flash memory. The controller is on the right."

About 1980 Fujio Masuoka, working at Toshiba, invented flash memory.

"According to Toshiba, the name "flash" was suggested by Dr. Masuoka's colleague, Mr. Shoji Ariizumi, because the erasure process of the memory contents reminded him of a flash of a camera. Dr. Masuoka presented the invention at the IEEE 1984 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco, California" (Wikipedia article on flash memory, accessed 04-01-2009).

Timeline Themes

Memory / Mnemonics / Data Storage