The company will ramp up phase-change memory production in the future, but will continue to produce NOR and NAND flash, Harrison said. The company has already delivered samples of Alverstone, a phase-change memory chip, which uses a glass-like material that can change from an amorphous, or gaseous, state to a crystalline state as its atoms are rearranged. The state of the material corresponds to the 1s and 0s in computing, allowing it to be used to store data.

PCM technology will generate a small amount of revenue for Numonyx this year, with more revenue expected as the technology evolves and becomes widely commercial in the next two to three years, Harrison said.

Earlier this year, Intel and STMicroelectronics presented research on glass-like material that can be turned into four states instead of two, allowing it to retain twice the amount of data. The material can also exist in liquid and semi-liquid states.

Though PCM is superior, Numonyx does not expect it to replace NOR and NAND memory over time, Harrison said. Besides PCM, the company will continue to manufacture NOR and NAND flash memory as they will provide a cost advantage to users, Harrison said.

....

NAND flash is slowly biting into NOR flash, and PCM could possibly replace both, said Joseph Unsworth, principal analyst at Gartner. About 60 percent of cell phones today contain low-end NOR flash memory, which is being replaced by NAND flash as multimedia cell phones gain acceptance, Unsworth said. Numonyx will not be able to compete with larger vendors like Samsung or Toshiba in NAND flash, so it's hedging its bets on PCM, Unsworth said.

NAND flash is slowly biting into NOR flash, and PCM could possibly replace both, said Joseph Unsworth, principal analyst at Gartner. About 60 percent of cell phones today contain low-end NOR flash memory, which is being replaced by NAND flash as multimedia cell phones gain acceptance, Unsworth said. Numonyx will not be able to compete with larger vendors like Samsung or Toshiba in NAND flash, so it's hedging its bets on PCM, Unsworth said.

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