Micron Makes ClearNAND Embedded ECC Flash

By Marcus Yam
published

Better flash for better speeds.

Micron Technology today introduced a new flash memory technology that integrates the error management techniques inside the NAND package, calling it ClearNAND.  The technology is applicable for products ranging from enterprise servers to consumer devices such as tablets and portable media players.

ClearNAND products utilize a traditional raw NAND interface, and include new features that are optimized for high-capacity and high-performance applications, said Micron. Furthermore, ClearNAND products are first designed using its 25nm multi-level cell (MLC) process, and are available in two versions: Standard and Enhanced.

Micron's Standard ClearNAND products come in 8 to 32 GB packages, while the Enhanced variants come in 16 to 64GB, and are intended to remove the ECC burden from the host processor with minimal protocol changes compared to raw NAND. This potentially means that controllers can divert more resources into making things even faster.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • scook9
    Faster is always nice but I think at this point more people care about cheaper.....
    Reply
  • cushgod
    How about some throughput tests with ECC on and off. Then compared to other SSD's with ECC on and off....
    Reply
  • zaznet
    CushgodHow about some throughput tests with ECC on and off. Then compared to other SSD's with ECC on and off....
    You did read the article right? This is a chip product not an SSD. It will find it's way into SSD devices soon I'm sure. Then you can get your benchmarks.
    Reply
  • house70
    sounds awesome...
    How about making it cheaper than it is now? 2USD/Gb is practically wallet rape.
    Reply
  • WarraWarra
    Nice more efficient intelligent NAND.

    Yesterday related news:
    Patriot Introduces 16GB and 32GB LX Series MicroSDHC Class 10 Memory Cardshttp://techpowerup.com/135887/Patriot-Introduces-16GB-and-32GB-LX-Series-MicroSDHC-Class-10-Memory-Cards.html
    Reply
  • WarraWarra
    CushgodHow about some throughput tests with ECC on and off. Then compared to other SSD's with ECC on and off....
    Should start seeing products using this by Jun 2011.
    Reply
  • dEAne
    This is more like it than speed - reliability.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    house70sounds awesome...How about making it cheaper than it is now? 2USD/Gb is practically wallet rape.
    I bet people thought the same when standard HDDs were that much. Well then again we didn't have anything that was older tech with larger storage capacities and didn't need it as much.

    Its not that bad. If we look at a timeline of HDDs from when they hit and compare their $/GB drop compared to SSDs then I think we would see that SSDs dropped much faster than HDDs did.

    Much like DDR2 go cheaper faster than DDR and DDR3 got cheaper faster than even DDR2.
    Reply
  • ProDigit10
    I heard the 25nm flash memory seems to be suffering from a seriously reduced lifetime, and increased errors due to it's so tiny design...!
    Reply