Intel and Micron have announced that they will independently develop 3D NAND technology in the future. The development of the third generation 3D NAND technology is expected to be delivered by the end of 2018 or early 2019, and both companies have agreed to independently develop 3D NAND after this technology node, to better optimize technology and products for their respective business needs.
Intel and Micron established a NAND Flash joint venture 12 years ago, which has grown into one of the world’s leading NAND flash manufacturers. Their collaboration includes the research and development and manufacturing of storage technologies, with the joint IM factory providing flash memory for both parties, allowing Intel and Micron to develop and market their own SSDs.
As early as 2012, Intel sold its stake in the IM factory to Micron, leaving only the Lehi facility in Utah as a joint ownership. Since then, Micron has independently established Fab facilities to produce NAND Flash and supply NAND Flash to Intel, while R&D work continues to be jointly conducted at the Lehi facility.
Currently, Intel and Micron are primarily focused on enhancing the second generation 64-layer 3D NAND, with the third generation 3D NAND possibly featuring a 96-layer design. After completing the development of the third generation 3D NAND technology, Micron and Intel will independently develop 3D NAND, and both companies expect that their respective development pace for future nodes will not be affected.
Additionally, Intel and Micron will continue to jointly operate the Lehi facility in Utah, which is primarily responsible for the research and production of 3D XPoint, so even though the two parties are stopping their collaboration on 3D NAND, it will not affect the development and manufacturing of 3D XPoint technology.
Scott DeBoer, Executive Vice President of Technology Development at Micron, stated: “The collaboration with Intel has been a long-term partnership, and we look forward to continuing to work with Intel on other projects. We are confident in the roadmap for 3D NAND technology development and are committed to bringing highly competitive products to market based on industry-leading 3D NAND technology.”
In 2017, Intel heavily promoted 3D XPoint technology and has launched the enterprise-grade Optane P4800X series SSD based on this technology. In the future, Intel will focus primarily on 3D XPoint technology, with plans to launch Optane DRAM in 2018 and significantly increase 3D XPoint production capacity. Compared to conventional NAND, 3D XPoint technology has significant advantages in latency, performance consistency, performance at low queue depths, and lifespan. Companies like Tencent and Alibaba have deployed 3D XPoint technology in their cloud services, SSD cloud storage, and databases to meet the data storage needs of data centers and enterprises.
