Intel, Micron Claim To Boost Solid-State Drive Speeds By 500%
Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) on Friday said they have developed technology for a high-speed solid-state drive that's five times faster than current products used in consumer and professional devices ranging from handheld computers and notebooks to digital cameras and camcorders.
The NAND flash memory chips developed jointly by the two companies can reach speeds of up to 200 MB per second for reading data and 100 MB per second for writing data, the partners said. Current memory chips have maximum read-write speeds of 40 MB and 20 MB, respectively.
Solid-state drives are used for storage today in just about any electronic device that holds data. Current technology is fast enough for handling photos and standard video in computers or an Apple iPod, but performance problems become an issue in handling high-definition video, which consumers are expected to start demanding as they become accustomed to watching HD televisions. HDTVs are among the hottest selling consumer electronics products today.
