Samsung, Toshiba to exchange NAND memory licenses

Asian consumer electronics giants Samsung and Toshiba are teaming up to give the NAND flash memory market more options. The two have agreed to license their proprietary NAND wares to each other so that the industry can rely on more than just a single producer.

Giant consumer electronics firms Toshiba and Samsung have agreed on a licensing deal that will allow the two to peddle each other’s NAND memory technologies. This was done to avoid over-dependence of some industries on a single producer.

Under the licensing deal, the two companies can manufacture, market and sell both Samsung’s OneNAND and Toshiba’s LBA-MAMD memory solutions. The move is expected to make supplies more accessible to mobile phone and portable audio device manufacturers.

OneNAND and LBA-NAND storage media are fast, affordable and non-volatile flash memory formats for portable devices. OneNAND is a flexible chip usually applied in consumer electronics while LBA-NAND is more popular in cell phones.