| storage chip news |
Intel buys InfiniBand line
from QLogic
Editor:- January 24, 2012 - Intel yesterday
announced
an agreement to acquire the
InfiniBand
40Gbps (pdf) related product lines, IP and business assets of QLogic.
SandForce nominated in GSA awards
Editor:- November
8, 2011 - SandForce
has been nominated for the
2011
Global Semiconductor Alliance Awards - in the category "most respected
private semiconductor company."
Volume shipments of 16Kb self powered EEPROM
Editor:-
November 4, 2011 - STMicroelectronics
today announced
volume production of a new type of dual function RFID 16Kbit EEPROM which
harvests energy from ambient carrier wave energy to power attached
electronic components.
The energy harvesting capability of the EEPROM will enable new types
of miniaturized electronics. ST has demonstrated the
M24LR16E
energy-harvesting wireless memory by illuminating indicator LEDs. Other
potential applications include e-paper devices such as electronic shelf labels
and personal healthcare products.
Editor's comments:- the Russians pioneered the concept of harvesting
radio energy to power circuits. In 1952 a bug was found in the US embassy in
Moscow which was powered when bombarded with microwaves from a nearby building.
It was built into a wooden model of the
Great Seal of the US
which had been given to the ambassador as a present. ...from the book -
GCHQ, by Richard
Aldrich.
BiTMICRO nurtures chip design training in Philippines
Editor:-
October 25, 2011 - the
Bruce Institute of Technology is
a new training institute in the Philippines - focused on microchip design -
which has been set up in a collaborated effort led by BiTMICRO in
partnership with Synopsys,
Cadence and
leading universtities.
The name celebrates the family name of the Bruce
brothers - who founded BiTMICRO in
1995 as
an ASIC design consultancy - before embarking on their pioneering market
developments in flash SSDs.
BiTMICRO's Chairman and CEO, Rey Bruce
said "The Philippines' traction in the global microelectronics industry is
almost entirely concentrated in assembly, fabrication and manufacturing.
BiTMICRO is practically the only Filipino founded and owned company engaging
into actual microchip design and engineering. We will do our part in uplifting
the industry to higher valued services and service capabilities with the
technology and products that we develop and produce in the country but this will
be not enough. Our goal with BIT is replicate our success at BiTMICRO in
developing microelectronic design skills."
Rudy Bruce, President of BIT, said "We hope to eventually build a
critical mass of locally developed engineers that can make the Philippines a
favored destination of the world's best microelectronic design companies. We
still believe in the Filipino's ingenuity and their ability to be relevant in
the world stage."
Hybrid Memory Cube will enable Petabyte SSDs
Editor:-
October 7, 2011 - Samsung
and Micron this
week launched an new industry initiative - the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium
- which will standardize a new module architecture for memory chips -
enabling greater density, faster bandwidth and lower power.
"HMC
is unlike anything currently on the radar," said Robert Feurle,
Micron's VP for DRAM Marketing. "HMC brings a new level of capability to
memory that provides exponential performance and efficiency gains that will
redefine the future of memory."
OCZ nabs PLX team to speed new PCIe SSDs
Editor:-
October 5, 2011 - OCZ
has has agreed to acquire the
UK Design Team
(approximately 40 engineers located in Abingdon) and certain assets from PLX Technology which will
enable OCZ to accelerate the development of its next generation of SSDs -
while also reducing development costs.
Editor's comments:- in
addition to traditional storage interfaces - PLX's special focus in the past
year has been technologies related to faster
PCIe SSDs.
Samsung acquires more nv RAM IP
Editor:- August 3,
2011 -Samsung
has acquired
Grandis - an
nv
RAM company which has been developing spin transfer torque random access
memory (STT-RAM).
will DRAM prices go up?
Editor:- July 27, 2011 -
Databeans has
published a new edition of its
Memory
Market Tracker ($2,800 quarterly / $6,450 annually) which provides the
latest market trends in both DRAM and Flash as well as other memory markets
including SRAM, PROM/EPROM, IC Card, Contactless IC Card, and Other Memory.
Among other things - Databeans says - "Certain
DRAM suppliers, such as
Nanya, Taiwan's biggest computer DRAM chipmaker, expects prices to grow by a
double-digit percentage during 3rd quarter of 2011, boosted by back-to-school
demand and corporate PC replacement demand, as well as limited supply thanks to
a rush of tablets that have hit the market in the middle of 2011 and have
gobbled up available DRAM supplies".
See also:- storage
market research, storage
chips.
world's first PCIe PCM SSD
Editor:- June 14, 2011 -
NVSL ( the Non-Volatile Systems
Lab at UCSD) recently
demonstrated
a prototype PCIe PCM (phase-change memory) SSD - with R/W speeds upto 1.1GB/s
and 327MB/s respectively and 8GB usable capacity.
A spokesperson for
the Moneta SSD design team - Professor
Steven Swanson said "...Moneta gives us a window into the future of
what computer storage systems are going to look like, and gives us the
opportunity now to rethink how we design computer systems in response."
Swanson says he hopes to build the 2nd generation of the Moneta
storage device in the next 6 to 9 months and says the technology could be ready
for market in just a few years as the underlying phase-change memory technology
improves.
Editor's comments:- in a white paper
Protoype
PCM Storage Array (pdf) the team outlines the design and architecture of
their PCM SSD prototype and also compares aspects of performance with entry
level PCIe flash SSDs from
Fusion-io. ...read my views
STEC shifts from FPGAs to ASICs in ZeusIOPS
Editor:-
May 10, 2011 - STEC
announced it will transition the hardware used in its high performance
ZeusIOPS (2.5" and
3.5") SSDs from a
dependence on FPGAs to ASICs. And the same ASIC design will be used in
new PCIe SSDs later
this year.
STEC also announced that its revenue in the most recent
quarter was back in alignment with the growth rates for the enterprise SSD
market - following a decline in the preceding year attributed to over
stocking by its biggest customer
EMC.
TMS updates SSD patents list
Editor:- May 3, 2011
- new (to me) is a
patents directory on Texas Memory Systems'
website which lists the company's US patents which are mostly related to
ensuring the integrity
of data in fast SSDs.
The most recent - issued a few weeks ago -
is related to dealing with timing skews which occur in all digital systems -
but which become more significant when data throughput approaches the speed
limits of the associated chip driver technology and board layout environment.
The patent covers a TMS technique for fine tuning set-up and hold times and
extracting reliable data. Other TMS patents in the last year relate to variable
size page data striping in flash arrays and a scheme for reducing
read
disturb errors. See also:-
SSD
patents (editor mentions on StorageSearch.com).
Anobit sources vital analog IP for SSDs
Editor:-
April 12, 2011 -
Anobit today
announced it has licensed IP cores from Cosmic
Circuits for several of its SoCs.
The analog IPs which consisted of linear regulators, a
power-on-reset
and a silicon oscillator (with integrated clock multiplier) were implemented in
65nm CMOS process. These IPs were integrated into Anobit's
flash memory controllers
to enhance reliability
and performance.
Kobi
Blechman, VP R&D at Anobit said, "We had a need for a diverse
set of IPs, and were looking for a supplier who had proven expertise in each of
these areas. Cosmic fit the bill perfectly. With the strong support provided by
their team, we were also able to quickly address any integration issues, making
the process smooth and seamless."
Editor's
comments:- although this press release only gives partial details of the
IP supplied (which relate to managing
sudden SSD
power loss) I'm also guessing that Cosmic's ADC technology might also be in
the mix.
Anobit uses DSP techniques to get better discrimination of
the state represented by stored charge in MLC flash. Sampling that charge itself
is an error prone process - but the "disturbance noise" filtering by
DSP can produce more reliable results if you can improve the ADC's resolution
or repeatability. Even a small incremental improvement or tweak in design at
this end can produce dramatic increases in
data integrity.
PLX ready to play part in PCIe SSD growth
Editor:-
March 16, 2011 - PLX
Technology today
announced it's
working with system partners worldwide to accelerate adoption of PCIe SSDs.
PLX
has been providing PCIe switches to manufacturers of both
HDD and
SSD based storage solutions
for years and has 65% market share in this segment. PLX is a founding member
of the (Intel led)
enhanced Non-Volatile
Memory Host Controller Interface (NVMHCI) Work Group whose goal is to enable
the broad adoption of SSDs
using PCIe.
"Enterprise SSD
products have attracted significant interest over the past few years," said
Michael
Yang, principal analyst for memory and storage at
iSuppli. "...PCI
Express-based products will be the primary catalyst for the segment with 40%
compound annual growth rate in shipments through 2015."
OCZ acquires Indilinx
Editor:- March 14, 2011 - OCZ today announced it has
signed a definitive agreement to acquire Indilinx for for
approximately $32 million of OCZ common stock.
Intel publishes new standard to increase efficiency of PCIe SSDs
Editor:-
March 1, 2011 - Intel
published version 1.0 of a new proprietary standard for designers of
PCIe SSDs in systems
which use Intel processors - the
NVM Express Optimized PCI
Express SSD Interface.
The interface efficiently supports
multi-core by ensuring thread(s) may run on each core with its own queue &
interrupt without any locks required. For enterprise class solutions, there is
support for end-to-end data protection, security & encryption capabilities,
as well as robust error reporting and management capabilities.
Intel
says that more than 70 companies have contributed to the standard - which will
make it easier to write software drivers which support multiple vendors. The
new standard will also make it easier for oems to adopt new SSD products from
alternative vendors which implement a consistent feature set.
Link_A_Media sues Marvell re HDD data integrity IP
Editor:-
February 16, 2011 -
Link_A_Media Devices
has filed a lawsuit against Marvell asserting that
Marvell has infringed on Link_A_Media's U.S. Patent No. 7,590,927 ("Soft
Output Viterbi Detector With Error Event Output").
In the complaint, Marvell is accused of willfully and deliberately
manufacturing and selling read channel products for storage devices that
infringe the '927 Patent. Link_A_Media is seeking monetary damages and an
injunction to stop Marvell from continued infringement of the company's patent.
Link_A_Media 's CEO, Hemant K. Thaparcommented
that, "Link_A_Media's pioneering work enables manufacturers of
hard disk drives to
increase the storage density of
mobile storage devices
and to lower manufacturing costs for these products. We intend to enforce and
defend the intellectual property on our work to ensure that Link_A_Media's
inventions are not unfairly exploited."
Business opportunities from Intel's imperfect bridge chips
Editor:-
February 9, 2011 -
Intel
Knowingly Sells Faulty Chipsets. are they Crazy? is a new article on PCWorld.com which discusses how Intel
is dealing with the issue of a bridge chip with known defects in some
SATA ports.
I
rarely read that publication because my interests are enterprise storage and
SSDs - but the author Keir Thomas
had linked to StorageSearch.com from another recent article he wrote -
Seagate:
SSDs are Doomed (at Least for Now) - which showed up in my web stats.
When
I started my storage
reliability directory in 2006 - I knew that large storage vendors would ship
flaky SSDs and hard
drives - but I assumed that would be due to the unwitting and creeping use of
inappropriate
design
and testing methodologies
- rather than deliberate business decisions.
Another
characteristic of this Intel chip is that if oems populate all the
RAM slots which it "supports"
- the speed drops down to unattractive levels.
But that's not bad
news for everyone. Adrian Proctor,
VP of of Marketing at Viking
told me last month it means there's a growing population of DIMM slots on
motherboards which can't be used for RAM - but could be used instead to save
space and power by installing their
SATADIMM
SSDs to replace HDDs as boot drives. Other companies make
1 inch and smaller SSDs
too.
companies you can trust to speed your SandForce SSD to market
Editor:-
January 31, 2011 -SandForce
has started a directory of companies, tools, technologies and services to
help SSD designers integrate its
SSD processors and get
them to market more quickly.
Each member company in the new
SandForce
Trusted™ program ensures that their products and/or services fully
support SandForce SSD Processors and provides response to SandForce customer
inquiries within 24 hours while committing to high-priority support for fastest
problem resolution.
Editor's comments:- 6 out of the 7 initial
companies in the new program provide
test / design verification
products.
new report looks at NAND flash succession
Editor:-
January 11, 2011 - Forward Insights
and its research collaborators have compiled an in-depth, independent analysis
which analyzes the options for various
non volatile memory
technologies which could become viable in storage after floating gate NAND flash
hits fundamental scaling limitations
What's after
NAND? (pdf outline) is the product of experts in floating gate and charge
trap flash, and resistive and emerging memory technologies. This new report
(price $10k) evaluates 3D NAND and cross point memory concepts from Hynix,
Intel, Macronix, Micron, Samsung, SanDisk, Toshiba and Unity and concludes with
a roadmap till the end of the decade.
Samsung anticipates DDR4 market readiness in 2011
Editor:-
January 4, 2011 - Samsung
Electronics has developed the industry's
1st
DDR4 DRAM - a 2GB RAM
module using 30nm class technology.
The new DDR4 is about 30% faster than DDR3 (at the same process
geometry) and could reduce power consumption by 40% compared DDR3. Samsung
is working with server makers and
standards orgs like
JEDEC with the aim of
standardizing DDR4 technologies in the 2nd half of this year.
Watts that DRAM doing to the power budget?
Editor:-
December 7, 2010 - Rambus
said it will
unveil
a new power modeling tool designed to understand and predict energy
consumption in current and future DRAM device today at the MICRO-43 conference in
Atlanta, GA.
The paper will later be posted on its
online library.
will Micron's enhanced flash memory really eliminate error
concerns?
Editor:- December 3, 2010 - Micron recently
announced availability of enhanced 16GB to 64GB 25nm
MLC
flash memory chips with integrated error management - which the company
says - removes the burden of ECC from the host and simplifies the use of flash
in enterpise apps.
Editor's comments:- as discussed in my recent article -
bad block
management in flash SSDs good blocks and less good blocks have always
coexisted in flash memory. But as device geometries shrink (to increase
capacity and speed) the margin of error between usable and non usable cells has
shrunk too. In practical terms this means that the raw media quaility of new
flash chips has declined in the past decade from under 1% defects, then 2%, 5%
and I've seen projections as high as 10% for emerging MLC.
read longer version of
comments
new article - bad block management in flash SSDs
Editor:-
November 26, 2010 - StorageSearch.com
today published a new article -
principles of
bad block management in flash SSDs.
It's a non technical
introduction to the thinking behind one of the many vital functions inside a
flash SSD controller.
The new article - started out life this morning as a long email reply to one of
my readers. ...read
the article
new book - Inside NAND Flash
Editor:- November 17,
2010 - Forward
Insights (an SSD
analyst company) is one of the contributers to a new book called -
Inside
NAND Flash Memories.
The publishers say that
SSD designers must
understand flash technology in order to exploit its benefits and countermeasure
its weaknesses. The new book is a comprehensive guide to the NAND world -
from circuits design (analog and digital) to
reliability.
Greenliant samples SATA BGA SSDs
Editor:- November 8,
2010 -Greenliant
Systems has
begun
sampling SATA
compatible variants of its
NANDrive
GLS85LS (miniature
SSDs).
The new SSDs have upto 64GB capacity in a 14mm x 24mm x
1.85mm 145 BGA. Active-mode power consumption as low as 500mW and a deep
power-down mode can reduce this to 10mW. The SSDs have content protection zones
and designers can select areas of the storage to protect with
fast erase.
News to me - Seagate has MRAM technology
Editor:-
November 5, 2010 - an interesting article on Denali's blog site
discusses
Seagate's
relationship with MRAM.
Web-Feet reports on Storage Class Memories
Editor:-
October 18, 2010 - Web-Feet
Research has just released its latest technology assessment report on
Flash Memory, DRAM and the rise of alternative Non Volatile Memories and Storage
Class Memories in -
MTS650FT-2010
(summary pdf) - price $7,500.
This new report evaluates the
most promising SCM memories: PCM, STT-RAM, MRAM, Z-RAM, ReRAM, CBRAM, QsRAM,
and FeRAM. The manufacturability of SCM storage is evaluated for: CMOx, PCM-S,
RRAM-S, 3D NAND and some claims that SST-MRAM can fulfill the storage function.
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| Micron buys
SSD PCIe integration IP |
Editor:- January 20, 2012 - Micron today
announced
it has acquired the assets of UK based Virtensys which marketed
rackmount SSDs stuffed
with Micron's PCIe SSDs and supported by a patented multi-server sharing
virtualization interface.
Editor's comments:- if buying an
SSD software company
was a good idea for leading
PCIe SSD makers
Fusion-io and
OCZ - then Micron has to
follow suit or get out of the game.
Chipmakers generally dislike
buying "systems" software companies - because they don't understand
systems and risk alienating their oem customers. But Micron's reputation won't
be dented if they can't leverage the Virtensys software. |
 |
Everyone knows how hard it
is to get real value out of a software acquisition. And in the next few weeks
more people will take another look at Micron's
Micron's SSD pages.
So it's paid for itself already. | | | |
| . |
|
|
| . |
| this way to the Petabyte
SSD |
In 2016 there will be
just 3 types of
SSD in the datacenter.
One
of them doesn't exist yet - the bulk storage SSD.
It will replace the
last remaining strongholds of
hard drives in the
datacenter due to its unique combination of characteristics, low running costs
and operational advantages. |
 |
... |
The new model of the
datacenter - how we get from here to there - and the technical problems which
will need to be solved - are just some of the ideas explored in this
visionary article. | | | |
| . |
| "PCM
is a bigger threat to supercaps than to flash..." |
| ...Editor talking to
various strategists and investors June 30, 2011 - in response to comments
about
a news story
by IBM that its researchers had proven the viability of multi-bit
PCM storage. | | |
| . |
| Surviving SSD
sudden power loss |
Why should you care
what happens in an SSD when the power goes down?
This important design
feature - which barely rates a mention in most SSD datasheets and press releases
- has a strong impact on
SSD data integrity
and operational
reliability.
This article will help you understand why some
SSDs which (work perfectly well in one type of application) might fail in
others... even when the changes in the operational environment appear to be
negligible. |
|
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| . |
|
|
| . |
There
are
hundreds
of SSD articles on StorageSearch.com
Here are some examples.
|
- SSD
Market History - lists product and technology milestones in the 30 years of
the SSD market upto the end of 2009.
- RAM Cache
Ratios in flash SSDs - it's important to know the underlying RAM cache
architecture - even if you're happy with the R/W and IOPS performance.
- 2010 - 1st Fizz
in the SSD Bubble? - even the dogs in the street know this is going to be a
multibillion dollar market. Greed will play as big a part as technology in
shaping the
SSD year ahead.
- the pros and cons of
using SSD ASAPs - auto tuning SSD appliances are a new category of SSD
which entered the market in the 2nd half of 2009 to accelerate servers without
needing human tune-ups. How can you tell if they are right for you? And how
well do they work?
- the Problem
with Write IOPS - in flash SSDs - long established as a useful performance
modeling metric - this article explains why some specs are exaggerated when
applied to flash SSDs - or predict the wrong results for many common
applications.
| | |
| |
| "There's a growing
realization in the enterprise market that RAM SSDs will be a permanent part of
the SSD toolkit in high transaction volume datacenters... Kove's Xpress
Disk embodies how fast you can go in a SAN storage appliance." |
| ...Editor:- from the
new edition of
the Top SSD Companies. | | |
| . |
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