Micron and Intel develop new type of memory

Intel and Micron have jointly developed a new type of memory that combines the speed of working memory with the storage capacity of flash memory. This type should provide a very fast memory that will not lose its data without power.

Several companies have been developing the holy grail of memory for years: very fast-access memory that can be produced in large capacities and, moreover, does not require any power to hold data. Although working memory is very fast, its capacities are limited and it loses its data without power. Nand memory as in SSDs has a large capacity and holds data without power, but is slow compared to working memory. The new type of memory that Intel and Micron developed should combine the best features of nand and dram.

The collaborating companies call the memory technology 3D XPoint. According to Intel and Micron, 3D Xpoint memory is up to a thousand times faster than nand memory such as in SSDs. This brings the memory closer to working memory speeds. However, the storage capacity is up to ten times larger than working memory, while chips are currently at about 16Gb. The two companies have already put the 3D XPoint memory into production and the memory will be sampled to partners later this year. Intel and Micron will also develop products with the new memory technology themselves.

There are not yet many details about how the new memory type works. The companies do speak of a Cross Point Array Structure, in which up to 128 billion memory cells can be addressed, each good for 1 bit of data. This means that the initial capacity is 128Gb, ​​which can be further increased by stacking the memory layers. The cells, which do not operate with transistors, are read and written by voltage variations.