Dallas, Texas 12/17/2013 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – The latest innovation news from Micron Technology, Inc (NASDAQ:MU) is that it has launched it’s NOR Flash product, 45nm MT25Q SPI. This is the company’s latest SPI NOR memory model and is truly a massive upgrade in terms of the flexibility, power, and cost-efficiency that it offers. Today, tablet and smartphone manufacturers prefer using NAND memory for the products they manufacture.
Despite this, Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is making no bones about the fact that the company is totally committed to the NOR Flash space. For a company of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s standing to hold onto its stand in this manner, makes you realize that it has some solid concept behind this intention. It must be convinced of the fact that the there is a definite future for NOR Flash which has the potential to rake in the dollars for the company.
A powerhouse of technology
The latest NOR Flash addition is just one step in that direction for Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU). This new 45nm MT25Q SPI NOR is an extremely powerful multi-purpose solution. It can be utilized effectively in numerous embedded products, networking, consumer appliances as well as varied industrial applications. These extensive capabilities in themselves and an indication that Micron Technology, Inc (NASDAQ:MU) has changed its strategy as far as NOR is concerned.
MT25Q has been created to be positioned as an all-round solution. It is backward-compatible and is available in densities of 512MB, 1GB as well as 2GB. Micron Technology, Inc (NASDAQ:MU) is flaunting the new NOR’s best-in-class 2 MB/s programming-speed as well as its 66 MB/s read-performance as being the best suited for embedded systems, in addition to the updates and fast boot-ups that it offers.
A legal battle ends
Even as Micron Technology, Inc (NASDAQ:MU) blazes trails in the NOR space, last week, the company and Rambus announced that they have now brought an end to the 13-year legal battle that existed between them and have agreed upon the licensing terms. Under the new agreement both the companies will now have the right to utilize any of Rambus’ patent in manufacturing some ICs, like memories. Once the initial term comes to an end, these very same products will then be covered by another perpetual, paid-up license.
In terms of industry consolidation, the licensing issue has proved to be a very tangled one. NEC was actually one of Rambus’ first licensees. Post consolidation in the SRAM industry in Japan, it went onto becoming a segment of Elpida. This also extended the Rambus license to the Elpida DRAMs.
A win-win situation
Now, that the licensing issue has been resolved, it seems like everyone ends up gaining something. Micron Technology, Inc (NASDAQ:MU) will now be able to go forth and benefit from the up-cycle in the 2014-2015 market and Rambus will be able channelize all its efforts in the creation of and licensing new IP. Another announcement that Micron Technology, Inc (NASDAQ:MU) recently made was that it has decided to adapt the Hybrid Memory Cube for super-computer systems. This is the next step in memory technologies and will help in the delivery of added reliability and also simplify complex processes and reduce costs for the company’s customers.
