Intel getting flash with Hitachi

 

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By Stuart Turton and Reuters

Posted on 2 Dec 2008 at 11:05

Hitachi has partnered with Intel to jointly develop solid state drives (SSD) for the enterprise market.

The move marks a strategic shift for Hitachi, the world's third-largest hard drive maker, which until now has not made a commitment to SSD technology.

The agreement will see Hitachi incorporate Intel's NAND flash drive technology in its Serial Attached SCSI and Fiber Channel drives, with the first batch expected to roll out in 2010.

Hitachi says its focus will remain on the server side, and that unlike rival Toshiba it will not target laptop PCs and other consumer-based applications.

"By expanding our product line-up to include both traditional enterprise hard drives and new SSDs, Hitachi GST will continue to provide customers with a proven set of products tailored to meet the high-performance, high-reliability requirements of today's data center."