Body To Promote NAND Flash Storage Formed

In a bid to promote the adoption of nonvolatile memory, or NAND flash, in PC storage applications major players Dell, Microsoft and Intel have announced the formation of a new partnership. This new body will be chaired by Intel Corporation and will have significant contributions from Dell and Microsoft. This body will work on providing and building a standard software programming interface, which can take advantage of nonvolatile memory subsystems. This interface would be used by operating system drivers to access NAND flash memory storage in applications such as hard drive caching and solid-state drives.

"Several NAND solutions are coming on the scene to take advantage of the Ready Boost and ReadyDrive features of the Windows Vista operating system," said Bob Rinne, general manager of Windows Hardware Ecosystem at Microsoft. "Standardizing on a common controller interface will enable more integrated operating system support of these solutions moving forward."

"Nonvolatile memory solutions enable better system performance and lower power consumption as well as facilitate additional benefits such as smaller form factors, quieter systems and improved robustness," said Liam Quinn, director of communications for technology strategy and architecture at Dell. "Dell looks forward to working with industry partners and extending the benefits NVMHCI will bring to our customers."

The formation of this body marks a good trend as flash memory offers several tangible advantages over traditional HDDs, such as faster access and no moving parts. However the cost of manufacturing NAND flash solutions as of right now is quite expensive and size of storage restricted.