Intel, STMicro ready to launch Numonyx
Numonyx will play in both major portions of the flash memory market. Its primary business, roughly 90 percent, consists of NOR flash memory, so named for the logic gates used to create the chip. NOR memory has traditionally been used as the primary storage in mobile phones, but that's changing as NAND memory becomes faster.
NAND is used in memory cards, MP3 players like the iPod, and more and more in mobile phones--the high-growth areas. As a result, Harrison expects Numonyx's NAND business to grow much faster over the coming year, although at only 10 percent of the total, there's a lot of work to be done.
The problem is that at the moment, the flash memory market is in turmoil. Prices are plummeting as flash buyers like Apple pull back their purchases in the face of a slowing economy. Intel is going to miss its earnings targets for the first quarter because the price of flash fell twice as fast as it had planned going into the quarter.
It's really the NAND market, however, that's facing the severe price crunch, Harrison said. Since Numonyx's primary business involves NOR flash memory, which hasn't seen the same dramatic plunge in pricing, the company is in a better position to endure the price drops.
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And the price crunch for NOR has been going on for how many years now? |
