Toshiba and Samsung to cross-license NAND rights: more flash for all!

While Toshiba (and SanDisk) and Samsung might be battling it out in the press for the world's fastest and highest-density NAND, they're actually good buddies behind closed doors. In fact, they've been partners in the Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation for years. Today they announced a deal to cross-license the rights to respectively produce, market, and sell Samsung's OneNAND and Toshiba's LBA-NAND memory chips. Each plans to release products next year based on the newly licensed technology of the other. The move should broaden the choice of suppliers to OEMs in a day where multi-sourcing reigns supreme. Yes, that's a good thing for us consumers.

[Via DigiTimes]

[TerraX @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:14AM]

It's good to see that companies aren't actually hindering each other in terms of moving technology forward, as in when they see the opportunity to advance their own research as well as the research others that they seize the opportunity and use it to their full advantage.

[Magallanes @ Dec 3rd 2007 11:55AM]

or to raise the price just like rambus.

[Nubaeus @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:13AM]

FLASH ME!

[shimman @ Dec 3rd 2007 10:24AM]

they kind of had to do it because oneNAND is to compete with nor type flash & mram, and lba-nand is good for reducing complexity/power consumption/cost of flash memory controllers.

this might put some damages on a new player micron backed by both apple & intel, and controller technologies of sandisk & lexar

the competition will be bloodier

[Luis @ Dec 3rd 2007 11:19AM]

A move that benefits the consumer? Thats unpossible!