Category Archives: Flash

Western Digital sampling 5mm, 2.5-inch, 500Gbyte hybrid HDD with NAND Flash

Posted on September 11, 2012 by

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 , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on September 6, 2012 by

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 , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on August 30, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Want to know why SK hynix is placing its bets on three different alternatives to DRAM and Flash?

Posted on August 27, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in 3D, DRAM, Flash, HDD, Hynix, Memristor, MRAM, NAND, PCM, ReRAM, SRAM, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Add Hitachi Data Systems to the growing list of companies developing their own SSD controllers

Posted on August 27, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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

Posted on August 27, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Memcon is filling up. Register now to be sure you get a ticket. It’s free. September 18. Silicon Valley

Posted on August 25, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in DRAM, Flash, HMC, Hybrid Memory Cube | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

As seen at Flash Memory Summit: Whose car is this?

Posted on August 24, 2012 by

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 , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on August 23, 2012 by

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

How Wired’s Mat Mohan got his personal data back from his SSD after his MacBook Air was hacked. Hint: $1690 in recovery fees.

Posted on August 23, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Marvell’s DragonFly NVRAM and NVCACHE provide high SSD IOPS for large storage apps

Posted on August 21, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , | Leave a comment

44Tbyte Skyera Skyhawk SSD employs Everspin MRAM as write cache

Posted on August 20, 2012 by

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

Friday Video: A personal invitation to Memcon from Sanjay Srivastava

Posted on August 17, 2012 by

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

Flash memory endurance, multi-level cells, and process technology

Posted on August 15, 2012 by

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 , , , , , | Leave a comment

Flash Memory Summit: Great Program on Non-Volatile memory.

Posted on August 3, 2012 by

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?

Posted on July 24, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in DDR, DRAM, Flash, MRAM, NAND, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Want more details about the new Micron 1Gbit Phase-Change Memory / 512Mbit SDRAM device? Here are several

Posted on July 19, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

StorageSearch.com names top 25 SSD companies. Guess who?

Posted on July 17, 2012 by

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

Posted on July 17, 2012 by

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 , , , , , | Leave a comment

Three Golliaths and a host of Davids meeting up on the storage battlefield. Who wins?

Posted on July 16, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jim Handy, The Memory Guy, answers your questions about Flash memory

Posted on July 10, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on July 9, 2012 by

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

Applied Materials develops Centura Avatar etcher for enabling 3D NAND Flash manufacture

Posted on July 1, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in 3D, Flash, Micron | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Jim Handy, The Memory Guy, writes that Flash memory is dead…but perhaps not just yet

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

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!

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

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 , , , , , | Leave a comment

Registration opens for the Flash Memory Summit 2012. Read on for program highlights

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Flash, SSD | Tagged , | Leave a comment

SSD prices: More affordable? Steady, substantial decline? In free fall? Just what is going on here?

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD, Storage | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Will cache SSDs rule the world in notebook storage? IHS iSuppli’s Magic 8 Ball says “Signs point to Yes”

Posted on June 18, 2012 by

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 , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Violin Memory’s Narayan Venkat writes about why Flash-based storage is doing well in data centers: time and money

Posted on June 18, 2012 by

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 →

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

Flash Memory Summit 2012, Santa Clara, CA. Registration now open

Posted on June 12, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Flash, MRAM, NAND, SSD, Storage | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Corsair does the Neutron dance with new line of fast SSDs based on Toggle NAND Flash

Posted on June 11, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD, Toggle | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

So just how big is the semiconductor memory market? $50 billion? $60 billion?

Posted on June 8, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in DRAM, Flash, Memristor, MRAM | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on June 7, 2012 by

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

Posted on May 30, 2012 by

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 , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

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 , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on April 30, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Flash, HDD, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted on April 23, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Flash, NOR | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lexar translates USB 3.0 specs into significant benefits that consumers care about with the new S73 JumpDrive

Posted on April 19, 2012 by

Sometimes, we insiders get pretty esoteric in the way we describe technological improvements. Take SuperSpeed USB 3.0 for example. Most consumers know it’s faster than USB 2.0—after all, 3.0 is bigger than 2.0 so it must be better—but perhaps they … Continue reading →

Posted in Flash, NAND, ONFI, USB | Leave a comment

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

Posted on April 18, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in eMMC, Flash, NAND, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

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

Will your multicore SoC hit the memory wall? Will the memory wall hit your SoC? Does it matter?

Posted on April 16, 2012 by

Multicore SoC and processor designs were our solution to the death of Dennard Scaling when IC process geometries dropped below 90nm, when processor speeds hit 3GHz, and when processor power consumption went off the charts. Since 2004, we’ve transformed Moore’s … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, DDR, DDR3, DDR4, DRAM, Flash, PCIe, Wide I/O | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

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

Posted on April 13, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Flash, NAND, NVMe, ONFI | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Intel jumps on the PCIe SSD bandwagon with the fast, new 910 Series

Posted on April 12, 2012 by

Intel has just announced an SSD family based on the PCIe expansion-card form factor and interface. The SSD family is called the 910 Series and it’s based on Intel High Endurance Technology and MLC (multi-level cell) 25nm NAND flash memory … Continue reading →

Posted in Flash, NAND, ONFI, PCIe, SAS, SSD | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Micron’s mSATA RealSSD C400 and RealSSD C400v drives get huge performance from their SATA 6Gbps interfaces and 25nm MLC NAND

Posted on April 11, 2012 by

Micron’s new RealSSD C400v and RealSSD C400 mSATA SSDs can operate as SSDs in ultralight, ultrathin notebooks and can also be used as a Flash caches in SSD/HDD hybrid systems. The drive fits the 3×5 cm, 3.75mm-thick mSATA form factor … Continue reading →

Posted in Flash, Micron, mSATA, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

4th International Memory Workshop in Milan tackles all things non-volatile with respect to semiconductor memory. May 20-23

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

You will need to travel to Milan, Italy to attend the 4-day intensive event devoted to non-volatile memory, which seems to be the exclusive topic for the 4th International Memory Workshop Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits covers latest STT-MRAM … Continue reading →

Posted in DRAM, Flash, Memristor, MRAM, NAND, ReRAM, Storage | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits covers latest STT-MRAM developments

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

Session 7 of the 2012 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits is all about Spin-Torque-Transfer Magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM), one of the several technologies hoping to challenge NAND Flash memory for the top spot in the non-volatile memory hierarchy. Five presentations … Continue reading →

Posted in Flash, MRAM, NAND | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Want to tour the Kingston SSD factory with TweakTown?

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

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 →

Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Supertalent USB 3 SSD memory-stick drive virtually “saturates” USB 2 port using 8-channel LSI SandForce SSD controller

Posted on April 2, 2012 by

In a sea of undifferentiated USB memory sticks, Supertalent is coming on very strong by differentiating its USB 3.0 Express RC8 drive  through its use of an LSI SandForce SSD controller with 8 channels of NAND Flash memory. As a … Continue reading →

Posted in Flash, NAND, SSD, USB | Leave a comment

Forbes.com publishes article on growth areas for SSDs and NAND Flash devices: mobile and cloud

Posted on April 2, 2012 by

Tom Coughlin, the President and founder of Coughlin Associates, has just published a good background piece on growth paths for SSDs and Flash memory. I commend it to your attention and I particularly want to call your attention to several … Continue reading →

Posted in Flash, HDD, SSD | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment