Intel and Micron end collaboration to create 3D XPoint memory after 2019

Micron and Intel have announced that they will continue their existing collaboration to produce 3D Xpoint memory through the first half of 2019, when development of the second generation of the technology is complete. Then they go their separate ways.

This means that the existing joint venture between Intel and Micron for the production of 3D Xpoint memory is expected to close in the second half of 2019 or sometime after. Both companies say they will develop the third generation of 3D Xpoint memory independently. They choose to do so in order to ‘optimize the technology for their own business needs’.

For now, Micron and Intel will remain involved in 3D Xpoint production at the Intel-Micron Flash Technologies plant in Lehi, Utah. Even after the end of the collaboration, the companies seem to want to use IMFT-fab for the production of memory.

Intel makes 3D XPoint memory under the Optane name, while Micron’s is called QuantX. QuantX has not yet been released, while 50 percent of the production is from the IMFT fab to Micron. At the beginning of this year, it became clear that both companies will also end their collaboration in the field of 3d nand memory.