Intel is keen on developing new technologies and to improve the chip manufacturing. A partnership between Intel, Samsung and Toshiba has been set in order to achieve 10nm class NAND – this is translated into a higher capacity of DRAM and flash memory. The gathering is emblematic as Intel is the greatest chip manufacturer in the world, while Samsung and Toshiba are leaders in the NAND market.

The chip trio is sustained by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, which will sponsorship half of the total spending – meaning 5bn yen, the correspondent of $62 million. It has been said by Reuters that the three chip companies would also intend to form a consortium.

That the project is really intended is to develop a 10nm class photolithography process, which uses ultraviolet exposure devices. The 10nm class is not supposed to work literally at 10nm, but between the span from 10 to 19nm.

Taking advantage of the current business relationships that each member company of the chip partnership has with Micron (sharing with Intel the Intel Micron Flash Technologies), SanDisk (Toshiba’s collaborator) and Seagate (Samsung’s developer of flash controllers), the NAND chips are likely to be sold after 2012 as solid state drives and PCIe flash cards.

The future looks promising for the chip technologies, as DRAM chip capacity is also expected to triple in comparison to today’s technological possibilities.