Dive Brief:

• HP and SanDisk are partnering to develop new memory chips that will reportedly be 1,000 times faster than flash memory, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Under the agreement, HP engineers will help develop the new technology and SanDisk will manufacture the chips.
• The companies said the new chips could replace widely used DRAMs but at a much lower cost.

Dive Insight:

Separately, HP has been working on memristors and SanDisk has been working on resistive random access memory, or RRAM. Both approaches “exploit materials that change their electrical resistance in the presence of electric current.”

“We are trying to collapse all of that and try to dramatically simplify the world,” said Martin Fink, an HP executive vice president and chief technology officer.

HP and SanDisk are not alone in their efforts, however. Several companies are currently working to make breakthroughs in the $78.5 billion market for digital memory. In July, Intel and Micron Technology announced they are working together to develop a new memory technology they call 3D Xpoint. Intel said the first solid-state drives to use its new 3D Xpoint memory technology will ship next year.

HP and SanDisk say they also plan to collaborate on systems that make use of the technology, and they don’t intend to license their new chip technology for others to sell.