Intel and SK Hynix Show Two Paths for Flash Memory’s Future

As the demand for data storage explodes, semiconductor manufacturers are racing to increase the density of memory chips while reducing the cost per bit. Intel and SK Hynix presented two important advances hinting at cheaper solid-state memory drives with higher capacity at the 70th IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), held in San Francisco in late February.

Intel presented the first three-dimensional NAND flash-memory chip that stores five bits of data in each NAND flash cell. That’s one bit more than the 4-bit-per-cell drives that are commercially available today….