Tag Archives: NAND Flash

Future Memory: The MemCon Panel. What comes after NAND Flash and DRAM?

Posted on September 6, 2012 by sleibson2

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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The top 21 things you probably didn’t know about Flash memory, from the Flash Memory Summit

Posted on August 30, 2012 by sleibson2

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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Tweaktown review of 1.6Tbyte SMART Storage Optimus SSD reveals a few secrets. Wanna see them?

Posted on August 27, 2012 by sleibson2

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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Want to know Rado Danilak’s and Skyera’s plan for total enterprise-class SSD world domination?

Posted on August 23, 2012 by sleibson2

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

44Tbyte Skyera Skyhawk SSD employs Everspin MRAM as write cache

Posted on August 20, 2012 by sleibson2

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 , , , , , , | 3 Comments

MOSAID and NOVACHIPS announce plans for an HLNAND-based SSD controller chip. Release set for 2013.

Posted on July 9, 2012 by sleibson2

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

Posted on June 28, 2012 by sleibson2

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

Will SSDs be the first big market for 3D NAND Flash memories?

Posted on June 7, 2012 by sleibson2

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

Tiny RunCore single-chip SSDs cram 8 to 64Gbytes onto small SATA cards that fit anywhere

Posted on May 3, 2012 by sleibson2

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

Posted on April 23, 2012 by sleibson2

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

Posted on April 18, 2012 by sleibson2

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

Posted on April 17, 2012 by sleibson2

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 →

Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD, Storage | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on April 13, 2012 by sleibson2

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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Interview with Whiptail’s CTO James Candelaria demonstrates how SSD controllers can greatly improve NAND Flash endurance by managing write amplification

Posted on April 9, 2012 by sleibson2

As NAND Flash geometries continue to shrink, device endurance specs have suffered, which is a significant challenge when using these devices in SSDs. This interview with Whiptail’s CTO James Candelaria discusses how his company’s approach to buffering writes in SSD … Continue reading →

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

Posted on March 23, 2012 by sleibson2

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

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

Posted on March 9, 2012 by sleibson2

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

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

Posted on March 6, 2012 by sleibson2

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

Posted on March 6, 2012 by sleibson2

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 →

Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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

Posted on March 1, 2012 by sleibson2

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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SanDisk’s founder and retired CEO Eli Harari says that the future of SSDs, computer memory, and everything else belongs to memristors at 11nm

Posted on February 26, 2012 by sleibson2

The SSD Review reports that SanDisk’s founder and retired CEO Eli Harari delivered some explosive predictions at last week’s ISSCC in San Francisco. In sharp contrast to the recent and highly publicized paper predicting the slowdown of SSD speed and reliability … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Flash, HDD, Memristor, ReRAM, SDRAM, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

Posted on February 23, 2012 by sleibson2

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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Flash Memory Summit 2012: Call for presentations

Posted on February 16, 2012 by sleibson2

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 →

Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

Posted on February 14, 2012 by sleibson2

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 →

Posted in Flash, HDD, NAND, NVM Express, NVMe, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

Posted on February 13, 2012 by sleibson2

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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SSDs as HDD caches to grow like topsy say Intel and IHS iSuppli

Posted on January 17, 2012 by sleibson2

Intel has made a significant change in the way its chipsets handle SSDs and the result, according to analyst firm IHS iSuppli, will be a 100x increase in the annual number of drives sold in the PC space between now … Continue reading →

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