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posted by chromas on Thursday January 17 2019, @11:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the flash-fabs dept.

Micron Exercises Option to Buyout Intel's Share of IMFT

Micron is following through with the next step in the breakup of their long alliance with Intel for storage technology. As announced last October, Micron is exercising their call option to buyout Intel's share of IM Flash Technologies, the joint venture in Lehi, UT where several generations of flash memory were developed and the current center of R&D and production for 3D XPoint memory.

The public acts of the Intel/Micron breakup began a year ago with the announcement that the two companies would no longer co-develop NAND flash memory, going their separate ways after the completion of R&D for their 96-layer design. The companies have for several years been manufacturing their own supplies of NAND flash each at their own fabs, and they have rather different priorities so that part of the split is neither surprising nor will it have a huge impact on the storage market in the short term. Several months later, they announced a similar split for 3D XPoint memory development. With 3D XPoint R&D for the two companies set to diverge, it is natural that they would not continue to share the IMFT fab. Since IMFT is the only place currently manufacturing 3D XPoint, Micron's buyout of Intel's 49% stake in IMFT will likely force Intel to buy 3D XPoint memory from Micron until Intel can spin up production elsewhere.

Previously: Micron Buys Out Intel's Stake in 3D XPoint Joint Venture


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:45PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:45PM (#787979)

    What effect will this have on the market?

    • (Score: 2) by AssCork on Thursday January 17 2019, @07:07PM

      by AssCork (6255) on Thursday January 17 2019, @07:07PM (#787988) Journal

      The memory market has always been a greedy lil bitch. If there's a fart in the wind, they'll raise prices 80% for a few months, then slowly drop back down.

      Source: OPEC was the Memory market's high-school Economics teacher.

      --
      Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday January 17 2019, @07:11PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday January 17 2019, @07:11PM (#787992) Journal

      It shouldn't affect the fab's output IMO. Maybe XPoint pricing will go down if Intel and Micron start competing.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
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