Intel and Micron Technology have announced a Nand Flash technology which they claim is five times faster than conventional Nand.

Nand Flash is used in solid-state memory devices such as USB drives and memory cards.

The new technology was developed by IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between Intel and Micron.

The technology should allow data to be transferred in a fraction of the time for computing, video, photography and other consumer applications.

A four-plane architecture with higher clock speeds allows the new memory to reach speeds up to 200Mbps for reading data and 100Mbps for writing data.

This compares to 40Mbps and 20Mbps read and write speeds for conventional single-level Nand chips.

"The computing market is embracing Nand-based solutions to accelerate system performance through the use of caching and solid-state drives," said Pete Hazen, director of marketing at Intel's Nand Products Group.

IM Flash Technologies hopes to see the technology used in a wide range of next-generation devices, including hybrid hard drives, high-definition video cameras and PC memory.

The pending USB 3.0 interface aiming for 10 times the bandwidth of the current USB 2.0 standard means that conventional Nand will become a bottleneck in system performance, according to the company.

"Micron looks forward to unlocking the possibilities of high-speed Nand to build and optimise system technologies that take advantage of its improved performance," said Frankie Roohparvar, vice president of Nand development at Mircon.