Flash is on for mobile race

NAND and NOR flash memory vendors at the recent International Solid-State Circuits Conference battled to win a place for their chips in future cell phones.

Flash vendors Intel and STMicroelectronics came to ISSCC with revved-up NOR parts that analysts said must serve to defend NOR flash against NAND memory devices.

The NAND camp made its presence known at ISSCC with 8-Gbit parts, aimed at MP3 players, USB drives and other data storage applications. But it is in the cell phone handset, whose memory needs have been changed somewhat by camera phones, where the competition for design wins between the NOR and NAND vendors is the most intense.

Read the complete story . (Storage Pipeline)