Intel to put NAND flash into notebooks

Users may soon see virtual "instant on" functions in their notebooks thanks to the growing adoption of flash memory--the same memory found in most new iPods. As noted yesterday, Intel this week said that it would begin to use NAND flash memory in its notebook platform to help users achieve faster startup times and achieve some power savings. While NAND flash has been used as memory for digital cameras, cell phones, and MP3 players, the move would mark the first foray for flash memory into notebooks. NAND flash, which can retain memory without power, is the focus of the tech industry as it competes with drive-based storage alternatives. Late last year, Intel announced a joint venture with Micron to produce flash memory chips and said that Apple had prepaid for $500 million worth of flash for its iPod players. It is not known if Apple will incorporate the new flash-based memory into its new line of Intel-based notebooks--the MacBook Pro, which began shipping last month.

The Street.com reports that Maloney demonstrated the advantages of flash technology in PCs, by booting up two PCs on stage, one with flash, and the other without. The report says that the PC with flash booted up in about half the time. The flash-based PC also consumed slightly less power.

The demonstration featured a PC with 256MB of flash; however, the limits are endless. While it is unclear how much flash would be incorporated into the Santa Rosa platform, Maloney said that "the technology scales way up. It just comes down to what's the cost curve on NAND."

He even noted that users could even run the PC's entire operating system from flash memory instead of from the hard drive to improve performance. Some utilities already allow users to realize this performance gain by using a RAM-based disk.

Intel is looking to aggressively persue the use of NAND flash in mobile devices as well as in PCs. The company announced that its the next generation of Intel Centrino mobile technology, codenamed Santa Rosa, will include Intel’s NAND flash–based platform accelerator, codenamed Robson.

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