Tag Archives: Flash memory

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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 , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

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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

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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

Posted in DDR3, DDR4, DRAM, Flash, HMC, Hybrid Memory Cube, JEDEC, LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, Memcon, MRAM, mSATA, NAND, NOR, NVM Express, NVMe, ONFI, PCIe, Samsung, SAS, SATA, SD, SDRAM | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 , , , | Leave a comment

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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 , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

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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

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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

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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 , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

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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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

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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

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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

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Do you know the advantages and disadvantages of the six different use cases for SSDs?

Marc Staimer, founder and senior analyst at Dragon Slayer Consulting, has just published an excellent primer on locating SSD storage within a server and storage network. With the advent of PCIe-based SSD storage based on NAND Flash memory, the number … Continue reading

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Spansion CEO maps divergent semiconductor memory strategy at Globalpress—a destiny that leads to smart memory

Spansion CEO John Kispert mapped out an individualized product strategy for the semiconductor memory vendor at today’s Globalpress Electronics Summit being held this week in Santa Cruz, California. Kispert first pointed out that Spansion currently has approximately 8000 customers who … Continue reading

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BIWIN America introduces 12x20mm e-MMC SSDs with on-chip controller, power-on boot, explicit sleep mode

BIWIN America has just announced a “single-chip” SSD device employing the e-MMC interface. The device is available in capacities from 2 to 64Gbytes, all packed into a 169-ball BGA package measuring 12x20x1mm. An integral SSD controller provides built-in BCH error … Continue reading

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Low-cost Intel 330 series SSDs sport SandForce SF-2281 SSD Controller

According to this extremely informative article on the Anandtech.com site, Intel’s just-released 330 series SSDs push Intel into the low-cost SSD zone using the SandForce SF-2281 SSD controller. Apparently, Intel’s 520 SSD series also employs this controller, but the use … Continue reading

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A detailed look at the IP components of an SSD controller chip by Dr. Eric Esteve

IPNEST blogger and analyst Dr. Eric Esteve has just published a detailed look at many of the IP components needed to design a high-performance SSD controller chip including a NAND Flash controller and high-speed PHY interface for NAND Flash devices. … Continue reading

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Want to tour the Kingston SSD factory with TweakTown?

Kingston Technology manufactures SSDs in Taiwan’s Hsin Chu Science Park and TweakTown’s Cameron Wilmot recently went for a visit. With his camera. Although Wilmot wasn’t allowed to shoot video, he did shoot a lot of photos that are included in … Continue reading

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LSI Corp releases multiple PCIe SSD and Flash-cached RAID storage cards in Nytro portfolio

LSI Corp has just announced a number of products in its Nytro line of PCIe-based storage cards. The LSI Nytro WarpDrive is a second-generation SSD card available in capacities of 200Gbytes to 3.2Tbytes using a memory-stacking architecture to load the … Continue reading

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ISQED: Who and what will win the Universal Memory Derby?

Professor Cristophe Muller of Aix-Marseille University gave an excellent overview of non-volatile semiconductor memory as the third ISQED keynote this week. It’s a very good overview of today’s landscape and well worth discussing in a wider forum like this blog. … Continue reading

Posted in DRAM, Flash, Memristor, Micron, MRAM, NAND, NOR, ReRAM, SDRAM | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Agilent: Memory technology has hit a wall due to physics limitations and that has implications for your designs

Last week, Agilent ran a seminar in Milpitas, California. The first of three subseminars was about memory technology with an excellent overview of the state of memory technology today. It was presented by Gordon Getty, an Agilent Application Engineer based … Continue reading

Posted in 3D, DDR3, DDR4, DRAM, eMMC, Flash, LPDDR2, LPDDR3, NAND, NOR, QDR, SD, SDRAM, Storage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

DRAMeXchange opines on six major DRAM and NAND Flash trends for 2012-2015. What do you think?

The DRAMeXchange http://www.dramexchange.com/ keeps a very close watch on the spot and contract prices for all forms of semiconductor memory including DRAM and NAND Flash devices. The group also keeps an eye on trends that may affect pricing. A couple … Continue reading

Posted in 3D, DDR3, DDR4, DRAM, Flash, HDD, LPDDR2, LPDDR3, Memcon, ONFI, Toggle | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Micron introduces Enterprise-class, 2.5-inch SSD with PCIe interface

This week, Micron announced a hot-swappable, 2.5-inch SSD that employs a PCIe interface instead of the more widely used SATA or SAS disk interfaces. Dell announced that it has selected this drive for its 12th generation PowerEdge server line. Both … Continue reading

Posted in NAND, SLC, SSD, Storage | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Free Webinar on using NOR Flash memory—sponsored by Avnet and Spansion. March 13

Avnet and Spansion are sponsoring a free Webinar on using Spansion’s GL-S NOR Flash memory, which is available in capacities of 128Mbytes to 2Gbytes. Although NAND Flash memory gets most of the attention these days, NOR Flash memory is apparently … Continue reading

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STEC’s MACH16 Slim 2.5-in SATA SSD requires small footprint, fits in small embedded spaces

STEC has introduced a small-form-factor Slim SATA SSD with a Slim SATA interface for embedded and other computing applications that require lots of storage that can fit in a small space and consume little power. The STEC MACH16 SSD is … Continue reading

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Objective Analysis White Paper covers the basics of SSD design. Do you know what’s important?

Jim Handy at Objective Analysis has just published a White Paper about SSDs titled “Enterprise Reality, Solid State Speed.” The White Paper provides an excellent introduction to issues surrounding SSD design. The key issue here is the basic wearout failure … Continue reading

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SMART Storage Systems’ Optimus Ultra SSD taps consumer-grade NAND Flash memory with magic wand named Guardian to make enterprise-class SSD

A lead from Computerworld put me onto the announcement by SMART Storage Systems of a new enterprise-class Optimus Ultra SSD based on consumer-grade MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash devices. Using consumer-grade silicon to make this drive cuts the OEM cost … Continue reading

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STT MRAM startup Spin Transfer Technologies secures $36M in Series A funding

Last week, STT MRAM startup Spin Transfer Technologies announced that it had secured $36M in Series A financing from Allied Minds and Invesco Asset Management. Spin Transfer Technologies is developing an “orthogonal” version of STT (spin transfer technology—the technology, not … Continue reading

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Flash Memory Summit 2012: Call for presentations

Planning is now underway for the Flash Memory Summit 2012, which will be held in Santa Clara, CA in August. There’s no better show devoted exclusively to NAND Flash semiconductor memory and applications of NAND Flash—particularly SSDs. The organizers have … Continue reading

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SanDisk launches X100 SSD in 2.5-inch, mSATA, and custom form factors. Capacities to 512Gbytes.

SanDisk has just jumped into full-fledged OEM mode with the X100 SSD series that is available in 2.5-inch (7 or 9.5mm thick), mSATA, and custom form factors and capacities of 32 to 512Gbytes. All drives are based on MLC (multi-level … Continue reading

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Why is the NVMe SSD interface inherently more efficient than disk-based protocols such as SATA?

The speed at which the electronics industry moves sometimes masks other developments that are incredibly slow-paced and the conversion of storage I/O protocols from hard-disk-centric to solid-state disks (SSDs) is a shining example. Most SSDs currently employ I/O protocols originally … Continue reading

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Do you know the new lessons that SSDs are teaching us?

IT Web recently ran a thoughtful article titled “Storage trends for 2012.” What struck me about this article is that it incorporates some pretty important lessons for anyone designing with SSDs or other forms of NAND Flash storage. Here are … Continue reading

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Watch out SSDs, here comes the NVM Express!

I was reading an article on the Information Week Web site about using SSDs for accelerating enterprise storage and came across this statement: “For the most part, the type of SSD that you use in the storage system does not … Continue reading

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Can MLC NAND Flash work in enterprise SSDs? Yes, with the right storage algorithms says Seagate

MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memories provide 2x or 3x the storage for slightly more than the cost of SLC (single-level cell) NAND Flash memories. Consequently, there’s a big economic case to be made for MLC NAND Flash devices in … Continue reading

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Elpida prototypes 50nm, 64Mbit, 10nsec Resistive RAM (ReRAM). 30nm production slated for 2013

Elpida, the world’s third largest DRAM manufacturer, just announced successful development of a 64Mbit resistive RAM (ReRAM) prototype chip using a 50nm process technology. Two key specs for this prototype are a 10nsec write speed, similar to DRAM and orders … Continue reading

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