HP will wrap up its deal with Violin Memory, one of a growing number of companies selling high-performance solid-state drives, to focus on selling storage machines from 3PAR, which it agreed to buy in 2010 for $2.4 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing an HP spokeswoman.

HP spokesman Michael Thacker told Reuters: "HP 3PAR is our strategic platform for solid-state storage." He declined to comment further.

Violin Memory, which could not be reached for comment, has been planning a stock listing for over a year.

Retrieving data from flash memory chips is much faster and more energy efficient than from hard drives, which read data from spinning metal disks.

While storing data on flash chips is still expensive compared to hard drives, IT executives see the extra cost as worthwhile for functions where speed is important -- like operating social media websites or banking transactions.

(Reporting By Noel Randewich; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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