John Walko EE Times Europe (06/22/2009 6:05 AM EST)

LONDON — Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. have extended their patent cross licensing deal related to NAND memories.

Exact details on how the licenses held by both sides will be shared and the duration of the latest cooperative arrangement have not been released.

The companies are the world's top two leading NAND memory makers, with Samsung in the lead, with an estimated 42 percent of the market. Toshiba is said to have a 29.3 percent share. Hynix Semiconductor Co. is ranked third, with a 12.3 per cent share of the global market.

In 2007, Samsung Electronics agreed to share its licenses for integrated OneNAND and Flex-OneNAND chips with Toshiba in exchange for the Japanese company allowing use of technology related to single-package LBA-NAND and mobilLBA-NAND chips.

Last month Samsung renewed its NAND flash memory chip license with SanDisk Corp. for seven years, and said it will continue to supply SanDisk with a guaranteed portion of its flash memory production.

The Korean company is said to be paying about $350 million a year in royalties to SanDisk for its patented technology.

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Updated: SanDisk, Samsung agree flash patents and supply deals