Press Release

February 1, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST
Intel and Micron Develop the World's Fastest NAND Flash Memory with 5X Faster Performance

Boise, Idaho and Santa Clara, California , Friday, February 01, 2008 – Intel Corporation and Micron Technology Inc. today unveiled a high speed NAND flash memory technology that can greatly enhance the access and transfer of data in devices that use silicon for storage. The new technology – developed jointly by Intel and Micron and manufactured by the companies’ NAND flash joint venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT) – is five times faster than conventional NAND, allowing data to be transferred in a fraction of the time for computing, video, photography and other computing applications.

The new high speed NAND can reach speeds up to 200 megabytes per second (MB/s) for reading data and 100 MB/s for writing data, achieved by leveraging the new ONFI 2.0 specification and a four-plane architecture with higher clock speeds. In comparison, conventional single level cell NAND is limited to 40 MB/s for reading data and less than 20 MB/s for writing data.
“Micron looks forward to unlocking the possibilities with high speed NAND,” said Frankie Roohparvar, Micron vice president of NAND development. “We are working with an ecosystem of key enablers and partners to build and optimize corresponding system technologies that take advantage of its improved performance capabilities. Micron is committed to NAND innovation and designing new features into the technology that create a powerful data storage solution for today’s most popular consumer electronic and computing devices.”

“The computing market is embracing NAND-based solutions to accelerate system performance through the use of caching and solid-state drives,” said Pete Hazen, director of marketing, Intel NAND Products Group. “At up to five times the performance over conventional NAND, the high speed NAND from Intel and Micron, based on the ONFi 2.0 industry standard, will enable new embedded solutions and removable solutions that take advantage of high–performance system interfaces, including PCIe and upcoming standards such as USB 3.0.”

For example, the specific performance advantages of high speed NAND in today’s most popular devices include:

  • When used in a hybrid hard drive, high speed NAND can allow the system to read and write data anywhere between two or four times the speed when compared to conventional hard drives.
  • With the popularity of digital video cameras and video on demand services, high speed NAND can enable a high-definition movie to be transferred five times faster than conventional NAND.
  • With the pending USB 3.0 interface, high speed NAND is expected to effectively deliver on the increased data transfer rates of the new specification, where conventional NAND would act as the bottleneck in system performance. USB 3.0 is aiming for 10 times the bandwidth of current USB 2.0 solutions, or approximately achieving 4.8 gigabits per second.
  • As NAND continues to move into the PC platform, the Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface (NVMHCI) can take advantage of high speed NAND in solutions such as Intel® Turbo Memory, allowing for even better system performance. NVMHCI is designed to provide a standard software programming interface allowing operating system drivers to access NAND flash memory storage in applications such as hard drive caching and solid-state drives.

Additional information on high speed NAND, the applications and opportunities for the technology can be found on Micron’s Web site at www.micron.com/highspeednand.

About Intel
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.

About Micron
Micron Technology Inc. is one of the world's leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions. Through its worldwide operations, Micron manufactures and markets DRAMs, NAND flash memory, CMOS image sensors, other semiconductor components, and memory modules for use in leading-edge computing, consumer, networking, and mobile products. Micron's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the MU symbol. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc., visit www.micron.com.

©2008 Micron Technology, Inc., and Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Information is subject to change without notice.

Micron and the Micron logo are trademarks of Micron Technology, Inc. Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding the production of the high speed NAND.  Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to the documents the Company files on a consolidated basis from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Company's most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. These documents contain and identify important factors that could cause the actual results for the Company on a consolidated basis to differ materially from those contained in our forward-looking statements (see Certain Factors). Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform to actual results.

Related Links

Micron Media Center
High Speed NAND

Contacts

Kirstin Bordner
Micron Technology, Inc.
208-368-5487
kbordner@micron.com

Connie Brown
Intel Corporation
503-264-4339
connie.m.brown@intel.com

Deborah Paquin
For Intel Corporation
916-984-1921
debpaquin@strategiccom.biz