TDK Launches Single-Chip SSD
TDK has developed a single-chip SSD that is significantly smaller than previous similar products.
The eSSD series will be available in a 17 mm by 17 mm package that integrates a NAND Flash memory controller with a 3 Gbps SATA interface and 1 to 4 GB of storage capacity.
TDK said that it expects the chips to make their way especially into consumer electronics as well as automotive and industrial products, but believes that thin client PCs, mobile Internet devices, netbooks and other ultra-mobile PCs will adopt the eSSD as well.
According to the manufacturer, the chips use single-level cell NAND flash and support AES 128-bit encryption. The maximum data read speeds of the chips is MBps and write access speeds reach up to 30 MBps. There was no information on availability and price.
Applications of such a device include:
- Office equipment such as multifunction printers (MFP), label printers, barcode printers, and commercial projectors
- Amusement devices such as karaoke on demand, arcade games, and game consoles
- Factory automation equipment such as NC machine tools, sequencers, PLCs, panel computers, touch panel systems, and embedded CPU boards
- Railway and transport equipment such as automated ticket gates, automated ticket vending machines, commuter pass vending machines, automated air ticket vending machines, and automated check-in systems
- Banking terminals such as POS devices, convenience store and kiosk terminals, and ATMs
- Medical and measuring instruments such as diagnostic imaging systems, cardiography equipment, blood analysis equipment, medical PCs, and electronic records systems
- Communications and broadcasting equipment and information system devices for base stations such as third-generation mobile phone data communications systems
- Security terminals and security devices such as digital signage, entry control systems, and monitoring cameras
- Disaster prevention related equipment such as earthquake early warning systems and household fire detectors
- Audio-visual devices such as digital cameras, video cameras, smart TVs, Blu-ray TVs, Blu-ray disc players, Blu-ray disc recorders, set-top boxes (STB), and communication satellite broad-cast tuners
- Thin client PCs and mobile Internet devices (MID), netbooks and other ultra-mobile PCs (UMPC)
- Automotive devices such as car navigation systems, portable navigation devices (PND), digital tachographs, data loggers, drive recorders, and rear view monitors
Before you say 'not enough'... let's go Back to the future for a moment to say, 1986.
We where selling 8MB expansion boards for the Amiga than for $1800 (Yes, OneThousandEighthundred).
So that 4GB Chip holds the memory of 500 of these ancient cards; worth $900.000 :-)
The cards where full length cards weighting about a pound each; so we are talking replacing some 500lb with a chip weighting in at maybe an ounce.
Oh, how times have changed.
If you want to share your paycheck with me, we can make this a regular thing!
Before you say 'not enough'... let's go Back to the future for a moment to say, 1986.
We where selling 8MB expansion boards for the Amiga than for $1800 (Yes, OneThousandEighthundred).
So that 4GB Chip holds the memory of 500 of these ancient cards; worth $900.000 :-)
The cards where full length cards weighting about a pound each; so we are talking replacing some 500lb with a chip weighting in at maybe an ounce.
Oh, how times have changed.
Around 1990 I bought 8MB of RAM [8x1MB] for $54 per MB, now I can buy a single 8GB stick [1024x the capacity and 100s of times faster] for under $50. All it says is that technology gets cheaper and better over time.
1-4GB is actually not enough for smart phones, tablets, desktops, laptops, netbooks etc...
This kind of technological development will help lead to lower SSD prices.
The maximum data read speeds of the chips is MBps and write access speeds reach up to 30 MBps.
Now that I have done part of your job for you, would you care to fill in the missing numbers? Or shall I go google that myself and post the answer here for you as well?
If you want to share your paycheck with me, we can make this a regular thing!
The chip is not likely to be aimed at tablets or high end phones of course.
I could see it in ECUs, Avionics, smart remote controls, entry level phones and numerous industrial applications.
Not every chip is aimed at improving Angry Bird deployment on smart devices :-)
pretty much, but they were able to take all that of a flash drive and shove it into a single chip instead of the 2 chips and 15( caps, resisters,etc) other components that it takes to make a flash drive
so while it is not a big leap from flash drives, it is a step in the right direction, especially when more businesses start producing similar chips, it will allow for mobile devices to become even smaller since the single average sized BGA component will be doing more tasks by it's self, (eg imagine an iphone using that storage to save space in order to add a micro sd card slot (like a phone should have)
Already down to a 2 chip solution now. One of these and one of the PoP SoC ARM chips which integrates everything including RAM and all controllers needed and you have a 2 chip solution.
2/3" (17mm) x 2/3" is pretty large when it comes to mobile devices. Given that all this chip should need is power and SATA connections, I don't understand why it needs so many pins. They've made the addition of SATA-connected non-volatile memory to an embedded system easy, but they need to work on footprint, performance and capacity before this can meet it's potential. If they could even hit just 16 GB, that would be enough for most phones and tablets to hold the O/S and basic storage. If they could improve to 100+ MB/s reads as well, this could work as a built-in boot cache (ala Intel RST) for Mobos. And if they could shrink the size down to something more like 10 x 10 mm, that would be much more useful for phones and such that require absolute smallest-possible size.
It's too bad. It's not a bad concept - non-volatile, solid-state SATA storage device on a chip. They should figure out how to go 3D with their memory chips and stack several of them on top of a better, multi-channel controller / SATA interface chip (all inside the same package). Then they'd get better capacity, better performance, and a smaller footprint.