Flash Memory Replacement Coming This Year?

From CNET News.com:

SANTA CLARA Calif.--Will Intel announce this year that it will finally start producing phase-change memory, a potential replacement for flash memory that's been in the works? That's the guess among people in the hallways of the Flash Memory Summit taking place here this week. Observers say Intel and STMicroelectronics, which have formed a joint venture to make memory, may soon outline plans to go commercial with phase-change memory chips (also called ovonics) this year. ST is very hot on getting the technology--which is said to be more dense than flash memory--out into the market, sources say. Intel has not officially commented on when it will come out with this memory. Greg Komoto, manager for strategic planning for Intel's flash memory group, who spoke at the conference, merely said Intel has created samples of 90-nanometer phase-change chips and that Intel believes these chips could replace NAND flash, the kind of memory found in MP3 players, in the future. "There is no other memory that has a potential for low costs that has so many other attributes," he said.

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