News

posted on 31 March 2008 08:10

Numonyx, the NOR flash joint venture of Intel and STMicroelectronics, is now an officially-operating company. So too is IM Flash Technologies, the Intel and Micron JV. What is going on?

Intel has been having problems with flash memory. The market is messy, with NOR flash used for mobile phones and slower NAND flash prevalent in MP3 players, memory cards, PCs and mobile Internet devices. As it gets faster it is appearing in mobile phones too.

Flash foundries are expensive to build and Intel's experience in flash has not been so good. It hasn't been able to make much of a dent in market leaders Samsung, number 1, and Toshiba, number 2. JV'ing is popular; Toshiba and SANdisk have set one up, and Intel thinks the idea is so good it has two.

Intel has looked to spread its risks by setting up NAND and NOR JV twins. It got together with Micron to set up IM Flash Technologies and with STMicroelectronics to form Numonyx. The 'Nu' bit comes from the developing Phase Change Memory technology which the JV has been gifted from Intel. It can double flash capacity and help it run at near-DRAM speed. PCM flash sampling recently started. If Numonyx can get its PCM flash to work then it should see boosted sales as a result.

Intel has recently stressed its determination to make its flash business come good. This is against a background of a forecast flash market slowdown.

Numonyx will have to work hard and pray that PCM gives it a sustainable technology advantage.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}