Next Apple MacBook Air to feature 19nm NAND flash

The next version of Apple's MacBook Air will be lighter and able to process data faster than the current edition, according to the latest reports.

Japanese news site Macotakara.jp spoke to a contact at an "Asian electronic component company" who said that Apple will use 19nm NAND flash technology to transfer data at a speedy 400Mbit/s using a Toggle DDR2.0 interface.

The flash memory chips are likely to come from Toshiba as it is the only company thus far to produce fabricated NAND flash memories with 19nm process technology. Toshiba said in April that it would start mass production of 64Gbit, two-bits-per-cell monolithic flash chips from July.

According to the report, the new SSDs "will be soldered on" to the MacBook's logic board. This will make user hard drive upgrades impossible, but will make the laptop slightly lighter.

Apple has remained quiet on when the new MacBook Air will go on sale, although it is expected to be soon.

The MacBook Air news is just another reason for Apple fans to feel excited this week.

A few days ago an Apple iPhone 4 prototype appeared on eBay, attracting bids of up to £999,999.01. However, the item has now been removed from the site.