Intel Signs For Yet Another Flash Deal

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday March 2, 1992

SUE LOWE

INTEL continues to stake out its territory in the burgeoning flash memory market, announcing its second joint development deal in as many weeks.

First it signed a deal with leading laptop maker Sharp, the aim of the agreement being to develop flash memory-based products that will in future provide Lan Adapter, modem and other enhancement functions in lightweight, low-power consuming and robust formats for use primarily in notebook computers.

Last week it followed that with a deal with the disk drive maker Conner Peripherals to develop flash as an alternative to traditional hard disk storage, again for use in lightweight notebooks.

Conner is the leading supplier of 2.5-inch hard disk drives for notebook computers.

As a crossbreed between random access memory (Ram) and hard disk storage, flash memory is expected to seriously impact both types of storage by the end of the decade - meaning PCs, in particular portables, will become quicker, cheaper and lighter.

Unlike Ram, flash memory holds information even when the computer is turned off. Currently up to 20 megabytes of information can be stored on a single Flash memory card.

In laptops where weight and power conservation are prime concerns, flash memory is already making its presence known.

It is subsequently a matter of survival for companies like Conner and Sharp to muscle into the flash memory market.

Under the deal with Intel, Conner will contribute its expertise in disk drive interfaces and manufacturing, while Intel will provide its proprietary flash memory technology and packaging. The two companies expect to deliver products starting in the second half of the year.

Intel is aiming to produce various implementations of flash. It currently sells one-, four- and 20-megabyte memory cards which conform to emerging American and Japanese flash memory standards, PCMCAI and JEIDA. These standards will guarantee that cards produced by different vendors will be usable across all machines, in the same way that floppy disks are supposed to now. Not all of Intel's flash memory products conform to these standards, however.

The market research company Dataquest expects the flash memory market to grow from $US170 million today to nearly $2 billion by 1995.

Intel currently claims to supply over 85 per cent of the world's flash memory products.