Computer chipmakers Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. say they’re ending a joint endeavor that saw them collaborate on the design and manufacture of 3D XPoint solid-state processors.

The companies issued identical statements explaining the divorce, saying they have “agreed to complete joint development for the second generation of 3D XPoint technology” in the first half of 2019. From that point onward, development of the technology will be “pursued independently by the two companies” in order to optimize it for their respective product and business needs, they said.

“By developing 3D XPoint technology independently, Micron can better optimize the technology for our product roadmap while maximizing the benefits for our customers and shareholders,” added Scott DeBoer, Micron’s executive vice executive president of technology development.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy told SiliconANGLE that the two companies most likely had different ideas on the future development of 3D Xpoint, which was originally designed to fill a gap in the storage market between dynamic random access memory and NAND flash.

“While the two companies will continue to build the current generation of devices together, they are splitting ways based on priorities,” Moorhead said. “I believe Micron would prefer to invest its development dollars into more mainstream, higher-volume quad-level cell designs, while Intel is best served investing their design dollars into higher-margin products like Optane that is more closely aligned with its data center franchise.”

The companies’ decision may have also been influenced by the poor industry reception to 3D Xpoint products so far. The technology is said to be 1,000 times faster, 1,000 times more durable than NAND technology and 10 times denser than dynamic RAM, thanks to a manufacturing process called 3D stacking, in which layers of memory are stacked on top of each other to improve density. But in a report last year, Wikibon Chief Technology Officer David Floyer criticized the technology, contended that 3D XPoint offers only nominal performance improvements over 3D NAND, an evolution of the 28-year-old NAND technology, and comes at a dramatically higher price.

“There is little differentiation between 3D XPoint and 3D NAND for use as storage,” Floyer said at the time. “Serial performance is a wash. Endurance is a wash.… The price difference is overwhelmingly in favor of 3D NAND, and will increase as vendor are investment in 3D NAND fabs and research turns into very high volume later in 2017.”

Micron so far hasn’t even launched its planned QuantX products that use the technology, with the most likely date being late 2019. Intel has at least introduced a range of Optane products built with 3D Xpoint memory inside, but those products are expensive and have seen minimal demand so far, according to reports elsewhere.

Still, Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc., said Intel’s and Micron’s decision to go separate ways was encouraging because it means 3D Xpoint’s development will be stepped up.

“There is a lot of hope and promise in 3D XPoint to enable next-generation applications in the enterprise, so continued innovation and progress on a partnership level is an important data point that gives typically wary CXOs more confidence,” Mueller said.

Intel and Micron’s divorce is not without precedent, as the two companies recently parted ways on the joint development of 3D NAND flash after first designing it together. The companies offered more or less the same reasons for that split as they did today, saying they wanted to serve markets that each knows best. The reasoning does make sense in both cases, since Intel’s strong suits are personal computers and data center servers, while Micron produces memory components and modules for a much wider range of products.

The companies’ relationship isn’t quite over yet, however. They’ll continue to share a facility in Utah where 3D Xpoint memory is manufactured. But the companies will no longer be sharing intimate details of their development plans.

Image: Micron