Intel Ships First 90nm NOR Flash

Intel announced it began shipping the first 90nm MLC (multi-level cell) NOR flash memory device in the industry. The company claims this memory offers better performance, higher density and lower power consumption than its previous 130nm technology.

According to Intel, the new memory, called M18, offers one of the fastest read speeds and enables the flash memory to operate at the same bus frequency as the next generation mobile chipsets, up to 133 MHz. Users will observe this in the acceleration of running applications.

The write speeds of the M18 memory are up to 0.5 Mb/s, supporting 3 megapixel cameras and video in the MPEG4 format. Intel announced that M18 will be available in many versions, with densities from 256 MB to 1 GB on a single chip, including the standard stacked package solutions.

The NOR Flash is a memory type used as a storage technology for operating systems in digital cameras and mobile phones. This type of memory has dropped sales dramatically in the past months, while NAND Flash, a technology mainly used for devices as storage cards has record sales. Intel's new memory is supposed to bring NOR back at the top.

Handset manufacturers like Sony, Ericsson and Nec accepted to use M18 chips.