Hynix, Numonyx and Phison Electronics today announced that they have signed a collaboration agreement to jointly develop controllers for the next generation of managed-NAND solutions based on the newly released JEDEC eMMC 4.4 industry specification.

The collaboration is expected to speed the delivery of the eMMC specification, helping to manage and simplify high-capacity storage requirements and improve the overall system-level performance of wireless and embedded applications.

Under this agreement, Phison, Hynix and Numonyx will develop controllers used in combination with a variety of NAND flash products. Phison will exclusively supply the jointly developed controllers to Hynix and Numonyx, which will enhance their respective NAND flash memory solutions portfolio.

"Through this collaboration, 3 parties expect to enhance its technology leadership of the NAND flash solutions." said Min-goo Choi, Hynix senior vice president of Corporate Strategy Office. "Also, this will help Hynix to expand its market share by diversifying its NAND flash products to premium application products such as microSD, eMMC, and SSD."

eMMC is an embedded non-volatile memory system, comprising both flash memory and a flash memory controller. The new MMC V4.4 standard features many enhancements including a doubling of the memory interface performance, flexible partition management and improved security options.

In June 2008, Hynix and Phison announced the joint development of NAND application technology and supply of NAND flash; Numonyx and Hynix entered into a joint development agreement in August 2008 to develop current and future NAND technologies and products; and Numonyx and Phison collaborated on the development of standard and enhanced eMMC4.3 solutions which are now available in Numonyx products and solutions.

Products combining the jointly developed controllers by Phison and NAND flash memory from Numonyx and Hynix are expected to be available before the end of the year.