Denali Memory Report:
The Denali Memory Report is produced by Cadence Design Systems, Inc. It delivers memory market news, discussions of market trends, products and product strategies of the memory vendors, plus information about alliances and industry consortia.
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Recent Posts
- Some great analysis on SSD wear leveling and power consumption
- The Economist covers PCM – must be something real
- Add OCZ to the growing list of SSD vendors differentiating their drives with a proprietary controller
- IDT announces DDR4 register chip for DDR4 registered DIMMs and 3D die stacks
- Western Digital sampling 5mm, 2.5-inch, 500Gbyte hybrid HDD with NAND Flash
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Author Archives: sleibson2
Some great analysis on SSD wear leveling and power consumption
Some great analysis by Cullen Logan at Amazon.com appeared on LinkedIn over the weekend in response to my post “Are Enterprise SSDs a “bad” idea? Four tips and counter-tips for your consideration”: “To put some raw data out there, consider … Continue reading
Posted in NAND, SSD
Tagged ECC, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Multi-level cell, Solid-state drive, Wear leveling
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The Economist covers PCM – must be something real
I was surprised to see an article about phase-change memory (PCM) appear early this month in the well-respected British magazine The Economist. “Altered states” provides a good, basic introduction to PCM.
Add OCZ to the growing list of SSD vendors differentiating their drives with a proprietary controller
SSD vendor OCZ has been showing its new top-of-the-line Vector 2.5-inch SSD at this week’s Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco. During a conference call with analysts, OCZ CEO Ryan Peterson reportedly discussed the controller in the new SSD. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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IDT announces DDR4 register chip for DDR4 registered DIMMs and 3D die stacks
IDT has announced a small but essential component for the development of advanced DDR4 DIMMs: the 4RCD0124 DDR4 register. A device of this type is required for building DDR4 DIMMs to provide registered buffering. In addition, the 4RCD0124 DDR4 register … Continue reading
Western Digital sampling 5mm, 2.5-inch, 500Gbyte hybrid HDD with NAND Flash
Western Digital just started shipping 7mm, 2.5-inch HDDs earlier this year and has now announced that it is sampling a 5mm, 2.5-inch, 500Gbyte hybrid HDD with integrated NAND Flash caching. The drive will be showcased during Western Digital’s Investor Day … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, SSD
Tagged Acer, Asus, Flash memory, Solid-state drive, Ultrabook, Western Digital
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Will the Apple iPhone 5 use PCM?
An investment site called Seeking Alpha has published a bit of strange forensic research that leads it to claim that the Apple iPhone 5 that will be announced tomorrow employs phase-change memory (PCM). What clue led to this conclusion? It … Continue reading
IBM gets patent for hi-temp PCM (phase-change memory) cell structure
Tom’s Hardware is reporting that IBM recently obtained a patent on specially formulated phase-change memory (PCM) that will operate above 150°C. This is a significant achievement because PCM has a problem with ambient thermal annealing. If the chip temperature goes … Continue reading
Future Memory: The MemCon Panel. What comes after NAND Flash and DRAM?
Just announced, there’s a pre-lunch panel at MemCon covering future memories. There are several new memory technologies that would usurp the thrones from DRAM and NAND Flash memory. Will any succeed? Come and hear the panel to find out. Jim … Continue reading
Posted in DRAM, Flash, MRAM, NAND
Tagged DRAM, Flash memory, NAND Flash, Santa Clara Convention Center
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Using SSD controller technology as a differentiator: Kingston adds another data point with SSDNow Enterprise-class drives
Memory and SSD vendor Kingston Technology has just announced enterprise-class SSDs called the SSDNow E100 in capacities of 100, 200, and 400 Gbytes. What I find interesting about this announcement are the emphasis on endurance and reliability (“10x improvements … … Continue reading
Posted in SSD, Storage
Tagged Kingston Technology, RAID, SandForce, Serial ATA, Solid-state drive, SSD
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It’s what you do with the memory that counts. Case in point: the TI Stellaris M4F microcontrollers
NAND Flash wear leveling is an established error- and fault-management technique in SSDs, but Texas Instruments is touting on-chip Flash and EEPROM durability in a low-cost microcontroller: the TI Stellaris M4F series based on the ARM Cortex-M4F microprocessor core. There’s … Continue reading
How ya gonna’ control that DDR4 SDRAM next year? The 28nm answer.
Cadence has just completed testing of its DDR4 SDRAM controller and PHY in two of the TSMC 28nm process technologies: 28HPM and 28HP. The DDR4 PHY exceeds the data rates needed to operate DDR-2400 SDRAMs and it is interoperable with … Continue reading
Posted in DDR, DDR3, DDR4, DRAM, LPDDR2, SDRAM
Tagged DDR3 SDRAM, DDR4 SDRAM, JEDEC, Micron, Micron Technology, Samsung, technology, TSMC
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The top 21 things you probably didn’t know about Flash memory, from the Flash Memory Summit
Last week’s Flash Memory Summit ended with a session titled “The top 10 things you need to know about Flash memory today. Richard Goering summarized the panel in his blog titled “Flash Memory Panelists Challenge Conventional Thinking About NAND and … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Floyd, NAND Flash, Scaling limit, Solid-state drive, SSD, Western Digital
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Need yet another argument for designing your own SSD controller?
A Web site called legitreviews.com recently reviewed the ADATA XPG SX900 128Gbyte SSD and this review contains additional justification for seriously considering developing your own SSD controller for new storage products. The review starts off this way: “ADATA is long … Continue reading
Posted in SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Hitachi Data Systems, LSI, SandForce, Serial ATA, Solid-state drive, SSD
2 Comments
What does Intel’s choice of GDDR5 graphics DRAM for main memory with its Manycore Xeon Phi coprocessor say about SoC design?
George Chrysos discussed the Intel MIC (Many Integrated Core) architecture of the Knights Bridge chip (officially called the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor) at today’s Hot Chips 24 conference and disclosed that it uses GDDR5 graphics memory as the main memory … Continue reading
Want to know why SK hynix is placing its bets on three different alternatives to DRAM and Flash?
Last week at the Flash Memory Summit, Dr. Sung Wook Park spoke about memory. No surprise there, but there were several surprises in Park’s presentation. The first surprise popped up in the slide immediately following the keynote presentation’s title slide: … Continue reading
Add Hitachi Data Systems to the growing list of companies developing their own SSD controllers
According to this Computerworld article, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) announced last week that it is developing its own SSD controller for MLC NAND Flash to be used in its SSD arrays. The objective is a 4x improvement in read/write throughput, … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, MLC, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged Computerworld, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, HDS, Hitachi, Hitachi Data Systems, Solid-state drive
3 Comments
Tweaktown review of 1.6Tbyte SMART Storage Optimus SSD reveals a few secrets. Wanna see them?
Tweaktown.com attended last week’s Flash Memory Summit and has published some great photos of the internals of the 2.5-inch SMART Storage 1.6Tbyte Optimus SSD. The drive has dual SAS ports with accompanying specs of 1Gbps sequential read and 500MGbps sequential … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, MLC, NAND, SAS, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash, Skyera, SMART Storage, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Memcon is filling up. Register now to be sure you get a ticket. It’s free. September 18. Silicon Valley
The Flash Memory Summit took place this week and registration for next month’s Memcon in Silicon Valley suddenly took a big uptick. I’d like to suggest that if you want to be certain to attend Memcon next month, you might … Continue reading
As seen at Flash Memory Summit: Whose car is this?
Leaving Flash Memory Summit on Tuesday, I stopped in my tracks when I saw this Toyota Corolla’s license plate. Can you decode it?
Posted in Flash
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Flash Memory Summit, Toyota Corolla
1 Comment
Want to know Rado Danilak’s and Skyera’s plan for total enterprise-class SSD world domination?
This week, I reported on a new high-end, high-performance 44Tbyte SSD for data centers and server farms from Skyera. (See “44Tbyte Skyera Skyhawk SSD employs Everspin MRAM as write cache” and “How Skyera developed the 44Tbyte, enterprise-class Skyhawk SSD from … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, MLC, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Multi-level cell, NAND Flash, SandForce, Skyera, Solid-state drive, SSD
1 Comment
How Wired’s Mat Mohan got his personal data back from his SSD after his MacBook Air was hacked. Hint: $1690 in recovery fees.
Mat Mohan knows how to transform adversity into opportunity. He’s a senior writer for Wired’s Gadget Lab and his Apple account was ingeniously hacked through a scam perpetrated on Amazon to get the necessary information to hack into Apple’s system. … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, SSD, Storage
Tagged Apple, Data recovery, DriveSavers, Hard disk drive, Solid-state drive, SSD, Wired
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NVMe Emulator from Teledyne LeCroy emulates the SSD or the host controller
A PCIe-based emulator board from Teledyne LeCroy—the Summmit Z3-16 Exerciser—can emulate either an NVMe SSD or an NVMe controller, so it’s a good choice no matter what type of NVMe hardware you’re developing. It supports transfer rates of 2.5 to … Continue reading
Posted in LeCroy, NVM Express, NVMe
Tagged Emulator, NVMe, PCI Express, Solid-state drive, Teledyne
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Marvell’s DragonFly NVRAM and NVCACHE provide high SSD IOPS for large storage apps
Marvell has just announced two new versions of its DragonFly PCIe board series: the DragonFly NVRAM and the DragonFly NVCACHE. Both boards contain a mixture of PCIe controller, SDRAM, SLC NAND Flash, supercapacitors, and software to create plug-in boards for … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, Marvell, SAS, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, IOPS, PCI Express, Servers, Solid-state drive, SSD, Storage
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44Tbyte Skyera Skyhawk SSD employs Everspin MRAM as write cache
NAND Flash memory would be perfect for nonvolatile storage because except that Flash write speeds are slow enough to create a window of time when write transactions could be lost during a power failure. This problem is especially acute for … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, MRAM, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Flash Memory Summit, MRAM, NAND Flash, Skyera, Skyhawk
3 Comments
Seen on the street: WD needs SSD Engineers
Drinking coffee with my friend Ira Feldman on Friday at the Starbucks behind Cadence, this advertising truck pulled up and parked for a while. Must be some sort of sign about the growing popularity of SSDs. I wonder how many … Continue reading
Be sure to come back on August 21
There are several key announcements queued up on the Denali Memory Report, timed to coincide with the start of the Flash Memory Summit on Tuesday.
Posted in Uncategorized
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Friday Video: A personal invitation to Memcon from Sanjay Srivastava
Want to know why you need to be at Memcon this year? Here’s Denali Software founder Sanjay Srivastava to tell you why: Now go and sign up! It’s a free ticket and includes breakfast, lunch, and some goodies—not to mention … Continue reading
IDT to present on NVMe at next week’s Flash Memory Summit in Silicon Valley
Flash Memory Summit is next week in Silicon Valley and IDT is giving a presentation on the NVMe standard for PCIe-based SSDs. Peter Onufryk, director of engineering in the Enterprise Computing Division at IDT, will present “How the Streamlined Architecture … Continue reading
Posted in NVM Express, NVMe
Tagged Flash memory, Flash Memory Summit, IDT, Integrated Device Technology, NVM Express, PCI Express, Silicon Valley
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Can you make money selling DRAM? The Memory Guy says “yes,” but perhaps not all of the time
Jim Handy, The Memory Guy, has decided to become a Mythbuster with respect to the meme: “You cannot make a profit in the DRAM manufacturing business.” He just published a blog post titled “Is DRAM Really a Profitless Business?” This … Continue reading
Flash memory endurance, multi-level cells, and process technology
I’ve been following an interesting discussion about Flash memory endurance, multi-level cells, and process technology in the LinkedIn Solid State Storage Group. Yesterday, The Memory Guy Jim Handy stepped in with this comment: “Flash endurance is the result of disruptions … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND
Tagged Error detection and correction, Flash, Flash memory, LinkedIn, MLC, Multi-level cell
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Initial Hybrid Memory Cube short-reach interconnect specification issued to Consortium adopters
The Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMCC), now supported by the three top DRAM vendors (Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron), has just issued an initial draft specification for the Hybrid Memory Cube’s “short-reach interconnection across physical layers”—in other words, the short-reach … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, DRAM, HMC, Hybrid Memory Cube, Hynix, Micron, Samsung
Tagged Hybrid Memory Cube, IBM, Micron, MicronTechnology, PHY, Samsung, SerDes
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Plextor blog walks you through the design process for the PX-M5S SSD: better, faster, cheaper
Plextor has just published an extremely interesting blog post that walks you through some of the high-level design decisions behind the company’s new PX-M5S SSD. According to the design goals, the prioritized objectives are: 1) speed 2) reliability 3) price … Continue reading
Posted in NAND, ONFI, SSD, Toggle
Tagged Flash memory, Hynix, Plextor, SandForce, Solid-state drive, SSD, Toshiba
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Samsung Exynos 5 Dual mobile processor features two 1.7GHz ARM Cortex-A15 processors, a WQXGA display controller, and two LPDDR3 controllers to feed ‘em
The Web was abuzz this weekend with the unveiling last week of the Samsung Exynos 5 Dual mobile processor, which features two 1.7GHz ARM Cortex-A15 processors. The previous generation of Exynos Dual mobile processor incorporated two 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor … Continue reading
Posted in ARM, Cortex-A15, Exynos, LPDDR3, Samsung
Tagged ARM, Cortex-A15, Exynos, LPDDR3, WQXGA
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Beware of Geeks bearing gifts (SSDs)?
I love this article in Bloomberg Businessweek titled “Samsung Sends Out Geeks to Revamp Laptops With New Drives.” It reports that Samsung placed a roving pan-European army of “geeks” in the UK, France, and Germany to ambush pedestrians and offer … Continue reading
Posted in Samsung, SSD
Tagged Bloomberg Businessweek, France, Geeks, Germany, Samsung, Solid-state drive
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Are Enterprise SSDs a “bad” idea? Four tips and counter-tips for your consideration.
I ran across a commentary on the Kaminerio Web site, “Is SSD Really a Bad Idea? BE CAREFUL WHOSE ADVICE YOU TAKE” by Eyal Markovich, which is a reaction to a blog posting by Phil Goodwin on the SearchSolidStateStorage.com Web … Continue reading
Posted in SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, IOPS, MLC, Multi-level cell, Solid-state drive, SSD
1 Comment
Virident Systems introduces PCIe SSD with capacities to 2.2Tbytes, high IOPS
Virident Systems has announced the Virident FlashMAX II, the company’s next-generation PCIe SSD for enterprise environments. According to the company, the FlashMAX II features the highest capacity (550Gbytes to 2.2Tbytes) in a low-profile PCIe plug-in card format, with industry-leading performance … Continue reading
Posted in PCIe, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, FlashMAX II, IOPS, PCI Express, Solid-state drive, Virident Systems
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Test your system design for DDR4 JEDEC compliance with this $4500 ‘Scope add-on
Agilent has just announced a compliance test application for DDR4 SDRAM system designs. The $4500 Agilent N6462A DDR4 test application accelerates bring-up and debugging of DDR4 SDRAM-based systems by automating a bevy of physical-layer I/O testing with the company’s 9000 … Continue reading
Posted in DDR, DDR4, DRAM, SDRAM
Tagged Agilent, Agilent Technologies, DDR4 SDRAM, JEDEC, Memcon, Oscilloscope
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How many SSDs does it take to saturate PCIe Gen 3? Would you believe 16 drives?
It’s now possible to conduct some interesting performance tests on real PCIe Gen 3 products and the video below shows you a PCIe Gen 3 RAID card talking to 16 SSDs, which is the number of drives needed to saturate … Continue reading
Posted in PCIe, SSD, Storage
Tagged Disk array controller, PCI Express, RAID, Sandy Bridge, Serial ATA, Solid-state drive, Storage
3 Comments
Save the date: JEDEC DDR4 Workshop, Santa Clara, CA. October 30-31
JEDEC is sponsoring a 2-day DDR4 workshop that should interest anyone planning on using DDR4 SDRAM in next-generation designs. Day 1: DDR4 vs DDR3: Comparison Matrix Why migrate to DDR4 Power-on, initialization, and training Read/Write and refresh operation review Day … Continue reading
Fast update on STT MRAM vendor Avalanche Technology: They’ve been here since 2006
Alan Niebel, CEO of Web-Feet Research, commented via LinkedIn on yesterday’s blog post about STT MRAM vendor Avalanche Technology: “Avalanche has been in the STT MRAM race for over four years now. They are not late to the party, they … Continue reading
Flash Memory Summit: Great Program on Non-Volatile memory.
The Flash Memory Summit rolls into Silicon Valley – August 21-23. Here’s a summary of topics covered in the program: Flash Memory-Based Architectures Next-Generation Flash and SSD Controllers Solid-State Drive (SSD) Technology Enterprise SSDs Testing/Performance/Endurance NVMe LDPC Coding Enterprise Storage … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, mSATA, NAND, NOR, NVM Express, NVMe, SSD, Storage, Toggle
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Add Avalanche Technology to the growing list of vendors in pursuit of STT MRAM
EEtimes reports http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4391539/Startup-raises-money-to-bring-MRAM-to-market?pageNumber=0 that Avalance Technology http://www.avalanche-technology.com/ has just gotten $30 million in funding from Avalanche’s current investors (Vulcan Capital, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Thomvest Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures) and VTB Capital (Moscow, Russia). The investment is to help … Continue reading
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See the future of DRAM usage, at least until 2015. Marc Greenberg from Cadence lays it out in a video
This year at DAC, Marc Greenberg gave a presentation on the near- and medium-term future of DRAM in the ChipEstimate booth. Two separate technology paths will dominate: the PC/server space and the mobile space. By 2015, PCs and servers will … Continue reading
Posted in DDR, DDR3, DDR4, DRAM, LPDDR2, LPDDR3, Wide I/O
Tagged DDR3 SDRAM, DDR4 SDRAM, DRAM, SDRAM
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You say “memristor” and I say…something else? Amusing comments from the memristor naming debate.
You may or may not be aware of a small controversy surrounding the use of the term “memristor” by HP’s Stan Williams (See “Wonks Question HP’s Claim to Computer-Memory Missing Link” at Wired.com) I’m not going to weigh in on … Continue reading
Posted in Memristor
Tagged Hewlett-Packard, Hynix, memristor, Slashdot, Stan Williams, Wired.com
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Unigen (and others) continue to roll out new mSATA SSDs
The Mini-SATA or mSATA form factor and interface standard for SSDs has been around since September, 2009 and it now seems to be gaining substantial traction in the form of several new product introductions over the last couple of months. … Continue reading
Want the latest scoop on DDR4 DRAM? Here are some technical answers from the Micron team of interest to IC, system, and pcb designers
DDR4 SDRAM is on the way. Just his month, Samsung announced sampling of its 16Gbyte DDR4 SDRAM RDIMMs (registered DIMMs) based on its 30nm-class DDR4 SDRAM chips. Production is slated for next year. Micron has announced plans for volume DDR4 … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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How many DRAMs does it take to populate a supercomputer? 746,496 plus a lot of hot water for cooling
Jim Handy, The Memory Guy, posted a short blog about the 3-petaFLOP (peak) SuperMUC supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre on the outskirts of Munich, Germany. (The “MUC” in SuperMUC is the 3-letter code for the Munich airport. Now that’s … Continue reading
Who do you want to see at Memcon?
As the emcee for the Memcon event on September 18, I’ve been given the opportunity to personally invite a few, select exhibitors to the show and to cut them a very sweet deal. To do that, I’d like to know … Continue reading
Cool case instantly transforms 2.5-inch HDD or SSD into WiFi-connected network storage
Patriot Memory is now selling the Gauntlet Node, a cool name for a cool disk-drive case that transforms a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD into a WiFi-connected network storage device. The enclosure has an internal SATA port and can accommodate drive … Continue reading
Posted in HDD, SATA, SSD, Storage
Tagged Hard disk drive, HDD, Patriot Memory, SATA, Solid-state drive, SSD, Wi-Fi
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Want more details about the new Micron 1Gbit Phase-Change Memory / 512Mbit SDRAM device? Here are several
Yesterday, Micron announced volume production of a new memory device containing one 1Gbit PCM (phase-change memory) die and one 512Mbit LPDDR2 SDRAM die. This morning, I had a conversation about this new device with Philippe Berge—Senior Director of the NOR, … Continue reading
Posted in DDR, Flash, LPDDR2, Micron, NOR, PCM, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, Micron, MicronTechnology, Mobile DDR, NOR Flash, PCM, Phase-change memory, Synchronous dynamic random-access memory
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Micron announces volume production of PCM/DRAM multichip packaged memory
Totally not expecting this. Today Micron announced high-volume availability of a multichip, packaged memory device that incorporates a 1Gbit PCM (Phase-Change Memory) and a 512Mbit LPDDR2 SDRAM. The PCM die is built with 45nm process technology. The multichip-packaged memory is … Continue reading
StorageSearch.com names top 25 SSD companies. Guess who?
StorageSearch.com has been following SSDs for a long, long time so they’ve got as much right to name their top picks as anyone. Here’s the 2Q 2012 version with a few you might not have heard about, yet: Fusion-io Violin … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD
2 Comments
Korg introduces SSD-based music workstation, the Korg Kronos X, with 62Gbyte drive and option for a second SSD
File this under places you might not expect to find SSDs: Korg USA has announced the Kronos X Music Workstation, a music keyboard and workstation with a 62Gbyte SSD for storing sound samples in sound libraries. That’s a lot of … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Korg, Music, Solid-state drive, Workstation
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Three Golliaths and a host of Davids meeting up on the storage battlefield. Who wins?
If you want to read a short, interesting overview of the combined HDD/SSD storage battlefield, look no further than a new article on The Register’s Web site. The article, titled “Will the titans of storage decide to flash their bits?” … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, Micron, Samsung, SSD
Tagged Flash, Hard disk drive, Hynix, OCZ Technology, Samsung, Solid-state drive, Toshiba, Western Digital
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Wired Magazine: HP Memristors Will Reinvent Computer Memory “by 2014”
Caleb Garling at Wired.com just posted an article predicting that memristors will remake the semiconductor memory landscape by 2014, based on the comments made Research Fellow Stan Williams at a recent roundtable discussion on nanotechnology sponsored by the Kavli Foundation. … Continue reading
Posted in Hynix, Memristor
Tagged HP, Hynix, Kavli Foundation, memristor, Stan Williams
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Want another opinion about the Hybrid Memory Cube? Michael Feldman of HPCwire.com weighs in
Michael Feldman over at HPCwire.com has just published his own analysis of the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC), which I’ve covered extensively in the EDA360 Insider and the Denali Memory Report (see below). Feldman reiterates many of the same points I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in DDR, DRAM, HMC, Hybrid Memory Cube, Micron
Tagged DRAM, Dynamic random-access memory, Flash memory, HMC, Michael Feldman, Micron
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Jim Handy, The Memory Guy, answers your questions about Flash memory
Two weeks ago, Jim Handy (who bills himself and appears on the Internet as “The Memory Guy”) posted a blog discussion about the end of Flash memory scaling. He also posted a notice of the blog as a discussion on … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, Flash, Memcon, ONFI
Tagged Charge Trap Flash, Flash, Flash memory, Jim Handy, LinkedIn, Memory Guy, Open NAND Flash Interface Working Group, Solid-state drive
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MOSAID and NOVACHIPS announce plans for an HLNAND-based SSD controller chip. Release set for 2013.
A couple of weeks ago, MOSAID and NOVACHIPS announced plans to jointly develop an SSD controller based on the MOSAID high-speed HLNAND interface specification. If you’re not familiar with the MOSAID HLNAND high-speed serial interface, join the club. Most NAND … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, Flash, Hybrid Memory Cube, NAND
Tagged Flash memory, Flash memory controller, HyperLink, MOSAID, NAND Flash, NOVACHIPS, PCI Express, Solid-state drive, SSD
1 Comment
Samsung starts to sample 16Gbyte DDR4 LRDIMMs using 30nm-class DDR4 memory chips
Today, Samsung announced that it has started to sample 16Gbyte DDR4 SDRAM RDIMMs (registered DIMMs) based on its 30nm-class DDR4 SDRAM chips. Last month, the company announced sampling of 8 and 16Gbyte DDR4 modules and a 2Gbyte DDR4 module was … Continue reading
Applied Materials develops Centura Avatar etcher for enabling 3D NAND Flash manufacture
About a year ago, I wrote an EDA360 Insider blog entry about 3D NAND Flash semiconductor memory. (See “3D Thursday: A look at some genuine 3D NAND cells, courtesy of Micron”) In this post, I discussed a talk by Glen … Continue reading
Jim Handy, The Memory Guy, writes that Flash memory is dead…but perhaps not just yet
My good friend Jim Handy—who writes several blogs including The Memory Guy and The SSD Guy—recently published a blog titled “The End of Flash Scaling.” He writes: “Everyone knows that flash memory is about to hit its scaling limit – … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, Flash, Memristor, MRAM, ReRAM, SSD
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Flash memory controller, Hynix, NAND Flash, SSD
1 Comment
Third Samsung memory video, well I’ll let you decide just how amusing this one is…
For the last two days, I’ve posted blog entries about two amusing Samsung memory videos aimed at memory consumers with fanciful supervillians named Fiona Freeze and Battery Brutus who caused havoc by inducing memory freezes and excessive battery drain. Samsung … Continue reading
Posted in Samsung
Tagged Battery Brutus, Fiona Freeze, Loading Ball Larry, Samsung, Supervillain
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ARM, HP, and SK hynix join Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMCC). First spec due by end of year
Add ARM, HP, and SK hynix to the growing list of companies in the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMCC). The three new members join the original founding companies, Micron and Samsung, along with Altera, IBM, Microsoft, Open-Silicon, and Xilinx plus … Continue reading
Second Samsung memory video just as amusing as the first
Yesterday, I posted a blog entry about an amusing Samsung memory video aimed at memory consumers with a fanciful supervillian named Fiona Freeze who was responsible for causing device freezups. Today, I present the Samsung Memory Battery Brutus video. Battery … Continue reading
Samsung memory video “movie trailer” plays it cool
There are few things as geeky as deep-tech memory discussions so it’s a joy when you find something that raises the bar. Samsung did that last month with this video:
Whoa, Momma! Flash memory maker SK Hynix enters the SSD market. Take a look at these performance charts!
Jim Handy, the “SSD Guy” and the “Memory Guy,” just published a short blog post alerting us to the fact that Flash memory maker SK Hynix has entered the SSD market just four days after announcing the purchase of Link_A_Media, … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, mSATA, ONFI, SATA, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Hynix, IBM, Phase-change memory, SK Hynix
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Registration opens for the Flash Memory Summit 2012. Read on for program highlights
The Flash Memory Summit takes place on August 21-23 here in Silicon Valley at the Santa Clara Convention Center and it’s now opened its registration. However, before you register, you might want to know what’s being covered. A reasonable request … Continue reading
SSD prices: More affordable? Steady, substantial decline? In free fall? Just what is going on here?
Senior Writer Vincent Chang over at CNET writes that “SSDs are more affordable than ever” and has the charted data to prove it. Clayton Vallabhan at ITPnet.com goes even further, writing “SSD prices in freefall.” For an even more extensive … Continue reading
Samsung’s 20nm-class DDR3 SDRAM runs on 1.35V, saves 2/3 of the power used by 50nm-class, 1.5V SDRAM
Not all DDR3 SDRAM is created equal. That’s the message Samsung is spreading lately by talking about its 20nm-class DDR3 SDRAM. The company is using 1.5V, 50nm-class DDR3 SDRAM as a benchmark and says that a server loaded with 96Mbytes … Continue reading
Briefly noted: Greenliant adds 8, 16, and 32Gbyte e.MMC SSDs
Yesterday, Greenliant announced that it was adding SSDs to its NANDrive product line in the e.MMC form factor. These new drives are available in 8, 16, and 32Gbyte capacities and complement the SATA and PATA drives already in the NANDrive … Continue reading
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SK Hynix to acquire SSD controller vendor Link_A_Media for $248 million. That makes four.
Memory Industry Analyst Jim Handy took the unusual step of sending out an alert yesterday. The topic of the alert was the announced acquisition of Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD) by SK Hynix for a reported US $248 million. LAMD is a … Continue reading
Briefly Noted: JEDEC publishes “A” rev of UFS HCI standard
JEDEC announced today that it has just published an “A” revision of the spec (JESD223A) for the Universal Flash Storage Host Controller Interface (UFS HCI), a companion to the JESD220 standard for UFS, a Flash storage specification for a range … Continue reading
Posted in JEDEC, UFS
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Will cache SSDs rule the world in notebook storage? IHS iSuppli’s Magic 8 Ball says “Signs point to Yes”
An excellent article by Hot Hardware’s Joel Hruska (see “Analysts Predict Skyrocketing SSD, Cache Drive Sales, But What Happened To Hybrid Hard Drives?”) contains several tasty bits of data and a quote from Ryan Chien, analyst for memory and storage … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, HDD, SSD, Storage
Tagged cache SSD, Flash memory, HDD, Hybrid drive, IHS iSuppli, Seagate, SSD
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Violin Memory’s Narayan Venkat writes about why Flash-based storage is doing well in data centers: time and money
Narayan Venkat, VP of product management at Violin Memory, recently published a guest blog post titled “6 Reasons Solid State Memory Is The Biggest Story In Computing” over at Forbes.com. The rhetoric in the article should be familiar stuff to … Continue reading
SK Hynix places bet on third wannabe non-volatile memory technology, phase-change memory, with IBM
When I was really young, I used to play a card game called “Pit” where you tried to corner the market on a particular commodity like oranges, sugar, soybeans, or corn. The game was based on the trading pits of … Continue reading
Posted in Hynix, Memristor, MRAM, NAND, PCM
Tagged Flash memory, Hynix, IBM, memristor, Micron, MRAM, Non-volatile memory, Phase-change memory, Samsung, SK Hynix, Toshiba
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Want a quick and dirty overview of the new JEDEC LPDDR3 spec? EETimes serves it up
Kristin Lewotsky has just published an LPDDR3 SDRAM interview with Huong Vuong, Chairman of the JEDEC JC-42.6 Subcommittee for Low Power Memories. Here are the salient points from the interview, in my opinion: The purpose of LPDDR3 is to increase … Continue reading
Yes Virginia, there was a Denali Party at DAC. “Nobody” came
Yes, there was a Denali Party at DAC 2012, sponsored by Cadence. It was held at the Ruby Skye nightclub, the same place it was held last time DAC rolled into San Francisco. “Nobody” came to the party, like the … Continue reading
Flash Memory Summit 2012, Santa Clara, CA. Registration now open
Every year, the Flash Memory Summit rolls into Silicon Valley to discuss the latest in Flash memory, SSDs, and possibly up-and-coming alternative non-volatile memory technologies. This year, the event takes place on August 21-23 at the Santa Clara Convention Center … Continue reading
Corsair does the Neutron dance with new line of fast SSDs based on Toggle NAND Flash
PC hardware maker Corsair has introduced a new line of 2.5-inch, 7mm SSDs called the Neutron GTX series. I find it very interesting that the first fact put forth in the Corsair press release for this new series is about … Continue reading
So just how big is the semiconductor memory market? $50 billion? $60 billion?
Yesterday, Jeremy Wagstaff, Chief Technology Correspondent for Reuters in Asia, published an article on wannabe non-volatile memory technologies such as MRAM and Memristors or ReRAM (See “Pushing the PRAM: when chips just can’t get any smaller”). The lure is a … Continue reading
Denali Memory Report gets a plug in Reuters story
Jeremy Wagstaff has just published an article on the rapidly evolving memory scene though Reuters. The article is titled “Pushing the PRAM: when chips just can’t get any smaller” and it does a good job of painting the current landscape. … Continue reading
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3D Thursday: Advantest 3D tester produces known good die and known good stacks
3D can’t move forward until the testability issues are solved. Hear that one? Well, Advantest has just advanced another click in that ratchet with this week’s introduction of a concept model test cell for TSV-based 2.5D and 3D products. It’s … Continue reading
Will SSDs be the first big market for 3D NAND Flash memories?
I’ve been meaning to write about a comment regarding NAND Flash memory and SSDs written by Thomas McCormick in LinkedIn’s Solid State Storage Group and this seems like the perfect time. McCormick is an Integrated Hardware/Software Product Development Leader at … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, DDR, DRAM, Flash, Memristor, MRAM, NAND, SSD, Storage
Tagged DRAM, Flash, Flash memory, memristor, MRAM, NAND Flash, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Toshiba launches family of thin 2.5-inch and mSATA SSDs based on 19nm Toggle NAND Flash
Toshiba has just launched a new SSD family called the THNSNF series based on the company’s 19nm Toggle NAND Flash multi-level cell (MLC) devices. The SSDs are offered in capacities from 64 to 512Gbytes. All members of the family employ … Continue reading
DRAMeXchange tests this year’s crop of 120Gbyte SSDs. Guess which one wins…
Yesterday, DRAMeXchange published some performance tests on five 120Gbyte SSDs. The results may surprise you. Click here: DRAMeXchange’s 2012 SSD Ranking – 120 GB SSD (SATA 2)
MRAM spotted in Buffalo Memory SSD—for cache
Several sources including TomsHardware.com have reported the appearance at the 15th Embedded Systems Expo in Japan of an SSD built by Buffalo Memory Company with MRAM for cache memory. The drive uses 8Mbytes of MRAM (magnetic RAM) as a cache … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, MRAM, SSD
Tagged Flash, Flash memory, Magnetoresistive random access memory, MRAM
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This SSD will self destruct…immediately. On Command (See the video)
In case you need an SSD that can be wiped quickly, RunCore has introduced the InVincible SSD with two modes of erasure: non-destructive and destructive. Two buttons—one red, one green—activate the erasure. The two buttons apparently connect to the SSD’s … Continue reading
DFI 3.1 spec adds DDR4 and LPDDR3 coverage for speed and low-power benefits
Earlier this month, JEDEC published the LPDDR3 specification for the next generation of low-power SDRAM that will be used in mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, ultra-thin notebooks and similar connected devices on the newest, high-speed 4G networks. The LPDDR3 … Continue reading
Invensas to detail POP interconnect to rival Wide I/O with as many as 1200 interconnections between IC packages
Later this week, Invensas will detail its new BVA (bond via array) package-on-package (POP) interconnect that can achieve 1200 electrical connections between chip packages without the use of 3D die assembly. Information on the technology will be contained in a … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, Wide I/O
Tagged 3D, Package on package, Surface-mount technology, Wide I/O
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The Denali Memory Report is on vacation and will return on May 26, 2012
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Semiconductor memory plays a large role in smartphone design says Matti Floman of Nokia
“There’s no real difference between PCs and mobile phones today,” said Matti Floman from Nokia who gave the first keynote speech at last week’s JEDEC Mobile Forum. There is no difference in the types of applications run; there’s no difference … Continue reading
NVM Express (NVMe) controller subsystem points the way to an SSD future
Cadence introduced an NVM Express (NVMe) controller subsystem this week. The Denali Memory Report and the EDA360 Insider have covered NVMe developments several times already (see below for the links) and it’s clear that one way to maximize SSD performance … Continue reading
It’s Official: Microsoft joins 3D Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium with Micron, Samsung, Altera, IBM, Open-Silicon, and Xilinx
Last week, the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium announced that Microsoft had joined Micron, Samsung, Altera, IBM, Open-Silicon, and Xilinx in the development of high-performance 3D SDRAM subsystems based on the Hybrid Memory Cube. For more information on the Hybrid Memory … Continue reading
Posted in 3D, DRAM, HMC, Hybrid Memory Cube
Tagged Altera, Hybrid Memory Cube, IBM, Micron, Microsoft, Open-Silicon, Samsung, Xilinx
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SSD Review: Intel 910 PCIe SSD a “game changer”
It’s always great fun to see a company hit one out of the ballpark with a new product and that’s exactly what Intel has done with its new 910 PCIe SSD, if you believe this recent article by Paul Alcorn … Continue reading
Posted in NVM Express, PCIe, SSD, Storage
Tagged Intel, NVMe, PCI Express, PCIe, SAS, Solid-state drive, SSD
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Micron samples DDR4 module at 2400Mtransfers/sec. Production pegged in 2013
Micron has begun sampling a DDR4 SDRAM module, which the company has said will lead the way to DDR4 availability in production equipment starting in 2013. The memory chips on the Micron DDR4 module are 30nm, 4Gbit, x8 parts operating … Continue reading
Posted in DDR4, DRAM, JEDEC, SDRAM
Tagged DDR4 SDRAM, JEDEC, Micron, Micron Technology, Nanya, SDRAM, SO-DIMM
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Second Speedy SAS SSD Shows at STA (SCSI Trade Association). Tomorrow
Seagate has become the second company to announce that it will be showing its Pulsar.2 12Gbps SATA SSD at tomorrow’s SCSI Trade Association meeting in Santa Clara, California. The first was Western Digital. (See “WD’s HGST to demo 12Gbps SAS … Continue reading
Posted in SAS, SATA, SSD, Storage
Tagged PMC-Sierra, SAS, SCSI, Seagate, SerDes, Western Digital
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1Tbyte KingMax SSDs spotted on shelves in Japan. ¥119800 ($1500)
Tweaktown is reporting the appearance of 1Tbyte, 2.5-inch KingMax SSDs on retail shelves in Japan with a price of ¥119800 (about $1500). There’s a photo too, in case you don’t believe the words alone. Tweaktown cites the original information source … Continue reading
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Simple three-bar graph explains all the engineering economics of 3D memory you need to know
The January IEEE Spectrum contained an article titled “3-D Chips Grow Up.” The article reproduced a simple Samsung bar graph about the very real advantages of 3D memory interconnect. That graph tells you all you need to know about why … Continue reading
Tiny RunCore single-chip SSDs cram 8 to 64Gbytes onto small SATA cards that fit anywhere
RunCore has announced a line of small single-chip SSDs in a format that the company calls “Mini DOM” (miniature disk on module). The high-speed SATA SSDs are available with capacities from 8 to 64Gbytes in three form factors: a 7-pin … Continue reading
Posted in Flash, NAND, SATA, SSD, Storage
Tagged Flash memory, Mini DOM, NAND Flash, RunCore, SATA, Solid-state drive
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WD’s HGST to demo 12Gbps SAS SSD at SCSI Trade Association Technology Showcase next week in California
HGST, the Western Digital subsidiary formerly known as Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, has announced a new 12Gbps SAS SSD and will be demonstrating it at the SCSI Trade Association Technology Showcase next week on May 9 at the Hyatt Hotel … Continue reading
Posted in SAS, SSD, Storage
Tagged Cadence, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, NVM Express, PMC-Sierra, SAS, SCSI, Serial attached SCSI, Solid-state drive, SSD, Western Digital
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