H-P and SanDisk partner on new memory chips to counter Intel-Micron alliance

Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ, +0.41%  and SanDisk Corp. SNDK, -2.73%  are collaborating on a new breed of memory chips, the latest entry in a widening race to improve a basic building block of computers and other devices.

The companies, which are announcing the partnership Thursday, predicted that their forthcoming chips will be 1,000 times faster than flash memory, which is commonplace in smartphones and rapidly moving into corporate data centers. The new chips also will be able to replace the widely used chips known as DRAMs at much lower cost, the partners said.

H-P, the big computer supplier, and SanDisk, which makes memory chips, join a gaggle of companies that aim to upend the $78.5 billion market for digital memory with new, higher-performance technologies. The goals they described mirror some of those laid out in late July by chip makers Intel Corp. INTC, -1.17%  and Micron Technology Inc. MU, -2.99% which announced a new memory technology they call 3D Xpoint.

Computers hold data for short periods in relatively costly technologies, such as DRAM chips and SRAM circuitry built into microprocessor chips, that transfer data quickly but lose it when power is turned off. For longer-term storage, disk drives and flash memory chips are slower but much less expensive per byte stored. Designers and chip companies dream of a single fast, affordable technology that combines the best of both, boosting computer performance by eliminating time spent shuttling data between short- and long-term storage.

“We are trying to collapse all of that and try to dramatically simplify the world,” said Martin Fink, an H-P executive vice president and chief technology officer.