By Jerry A. DiColo

Jan. 25, 2010, 8:30 p.m. EST

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) and Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) plan to unveil new developments in flash memory in the next week.

The companies have a joint venture to make NAND flash chips, a type of memory used in cell phones, music players and other devices.

Last year, the companies said they were working on technology that could boost the capacity of this type of memory by storing three bits of data in each of the millions of tiny storage cells on a chip. Most NAND chips store one or two bits per cell.

By doing so, the companies can produce chips with a higher memory capacity, lower cost, or both.

A spokesman for Micron sent an email to reporters regarding the upcoming announcement.

Intel shares closed Monday up 2.1% at $20.32. Micron shares closed up 2.2% at $9.33.