Intel Corporation has finalized and closed its transaction with STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners to create a new independent semiconductor company Numonyx B.V. that will design, develop and manufacture NOR and NAND flash memory products. As part of the transaction, Intel has transferred the assets associated with its NOR flash memory business and certain assets related to the company's phase change memory initiatives to Numonyx in exchange for 45.1 percent ownership in Numonyx. ST Microelectronics acquired a 48.6 percent ownership interest in Numonyx. Francisco Partners acquired a 6.3 percent ownership interest in exchange for a cash investment of $150 million. As part of the overall transaction, Numonyx will receive $450 million of debt financing at closing from Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A and Unicredit Banca d'Impresa S.p.A in addition to a $100 million committed revolving credit facility. The loan has a 4-year term and Intel and STMicroelectronics have each provided Numonyx and the banks with a guarantee of 50 percent of the indebtedness.
Intel estimates that it will record additional non-cash impairment of approximately $300 million related to the assets transferred to Numonyx and other costs associated with this transaction in the first quarter of 2008. Approximately 2,500 Intel employees are joining Numonyx as part of this transaction.
Phase Change Memory (PCM), Alverstone .. by combining the bit-alterability of DRAM, the non-volatility of flash, the fast reads of NOR and the fast writes of NAND, PCM has the ability to address the entire memory market and be a key driver for future growth over the next decade.
The world’s slimmest 256GB solid state drive (SSD) launched by Super Talent Technology.
The FSD56GC25H uses an industry standard 2.5-inch hard drive form factor and uses an industry standard SATA-I interface, making it 100% interchangeable with conventional 2.5-inch SATA hard drives. This SSD implements patented stacking technology to pack an enormous amount of solid state storage into an exceptionally small and slim case, measuring a mere 12.5mm thick – 40% thinner than any other 256GB SSD available. The signature black case is made from a durable lightweight aluminum alloy.
-- HyperX DDR3 memory modules, from Kingston® Technology Company, Inc., have been SLI-certified by NVIDIA® Corporation, as part if its program to offer gaming enthusiasts solid platform/memory compatibility, stability and performance solutions when building high performance systems using the new series of NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI platforms.
Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) announced today that Toshiba Corp.'s first multi-level cell (MLC) NAND-flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs) have started mass production. The initial models to begin shipping this month are 128GB drives in a lightweight, 15 gram embedded module form factor.
To achieve performance levels of 100MB/second read and 40MB/second write in these first generation drives, Toshiba utilized a SATA II interface and an innovative MLC controller supporting fast read-write speed, parallel data transfer, and wear-leveling. As a result, Toshiba SSDs achieve overall PC Benchmark scores that are better than 5400 rpm and 7200rpm HDDs and comparable to selected SATA SLC NAND SSDs3 . The SSD drives excel in Windows Vista™ boot speed, application loading, general usage and virus scan operations. Compared to hard disk drives, SSDs realize a number of advantages that address needs in the mobile computing market for performance, ruggedness, and lightweight, compact form factors. For more information on the Toshiba SSD product family, please visit ssd.toshiba.com.