Serial NOR expanding in new applications
There has been a great deal of attention on the market growth and density increased in consumer grade NAND Flash memory. While these are being targeted at user controlled content (music, video, SSDs), embedded systems that have long life cycles still rely on NOR Flash. Traditional NOR Flash utilized a parallel interface to access the memory at both high speed and high reliability. These device, such as Spansion’s GLS line of memory, achieve data rates of 98MB/s in their current 65nm process.
Spansion FL-S SPI NOR Flash Memory
The new serial NOR (SPI NOR) from Spansion, is called the FL-S line and features 1G densities and a high speed throughput of 66MB/s data rates in a small 16 pin package with 6 active signal pins. The FL-S memory utilizes advances in the DDR SPI interface to achieve the performance increase. The form factor for these devices is surface mount, BGA and traditional leaded packages, as well as Known Good Die (KGD) on project by project strategic alliance basis.
NOR Flash Memory Bandwidth
The NOR products are selected for their reliability, long wear cycle – significantly higher than NAND for write cycles, extended temperature operation and process stability for supporting 20yr life cycle products. In this path, the small package has been selected to provide 1GB SPI NOR (FL-S) memory for the 2014 model year of automotive design, and 2G-4G are scheduled for 2015 models. The automotive application include heads up displays and other console cluster displays for the driver. The expanded application will soon include other automotive control (temp, sensors, cabin electronics, infotainment systems). The high speed of the memory allows for “instant on” of the automotive electronics with access typically under 0.5s for the start, and full system availability under 1.5s.
In addition to the automotive space, Set Top Boxes (STB) which are in the process of morphing into home gateways with DVRs, modems/home gateway/wimax, industrial control systems, smart meters, digital TV, and printers. As the memory is available in a BGA format, the top 3 STB manufacturers employ this product, and the non-socketed package also provides physical security on the data stored in the memory. A number of these functions are being driven not only by the low pin count and high data rate, but the ability to operate the memory at low power and down to 1.8V supplies.
The Spansion FL-S family of memories is available now.
