In a sudden but perhaps not too surprising announcement, Micron has stated that they are discontinuing all research and development of 3D XPoint memory technology. Intel and Micron jointly developed the 3D XPoint memory, which was unveiled in 2015 as a non-volatile memory technology with higher performance and endurance than NAND flash memory.
Intel was responsible for almost all of the commercial volume of 3D XPoint-based products under their Optane brand for both NVMe SSDs and persistent memory modules in the DIMM form factor. Micron announced their QuantX brand for 3D XPoint products in 2016, but never shipped anything under the brand. The first and only true product based on 3D XPoint was the X100 high-end SSD enterprise which had very limited release for close partners. Micron has now decided that further work to commercialize 3D XPoint memory is not worth it.
Micron currently owns the only factory equipped to mass-produce 3D XPoint memory: the Lehi factory in Utah, formerly home to the Intel-Micron flash and the 3D XPoint joint venture IMFT. Intel and Micron began splitting their partnership in 2018, with the first separation of 3D NAND flash memory development, followed by the dissolution of the 3D XPoint partnership after the development of the second generation 3D XPoint was completed. In 2019, Micron exercised its rights to buy out Intel’s stake in the IMFT plant, leaving Micron the sole owner of the plant, and Intel in a position to buy Micron’s 3D XPoint waffles to become Optane products to use. Intel’s Optane products were not enough to take full advantage of the factory’s capacity, and Micron’s non-GAAP operating profit suffered more than $ 400 million a year in underutilization costs.
Micron is now selling the 3D XPoint factory and is currently in talks with several potential buyers. Intel is the most obvious possible buyer, having recently begun the lengthy process of selling their NAND flash and flash-based SSD business to SK hynix, while retaining Optane products. Intel has already moved its 3D XPoint R&D to Rio Rancho, NM, but has not built up its own 3D XPoint mass production capability; buy the Lehi, UT fab would they save the effort to e.g. their NAND factory in Dalian, China, to also manufacture 3D XPoint.
However, Intel can not be the buyer of the Lehi, UT factory. They have no doubt had opportunities to do so before while Intel and Micron withdrew their partnership. Micron says that Lehi, UT’s factory can be used to produce analog or logical ICs, not just memory – and that converting them to large-scale production of DRAM or NAND flash memory will not be as attractive to Micron as to simply the capacity of their other existing factories. With a huge shortage of semiconductors hitting almost every corner of the industry, this factory is likely to sell quickly, even if the buyer has to make a big effort to rebuild.
Micron does not have a direct replacement for 3D XPoint memory technology, but continues R&D with new memory and storage technologies. Micron’s announcement highlights a pivotal point in the development of memory products that will use the Compute Express Link (CXL) interface, which promises to be a vendor-neutral interface for DRAM and non-volatile memories such as 3D XPoint.
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