Third Time's a Flash at Annual Memory Summit

Back when I worked for Waferscale Integration, which was later purchased by STMicroelectronics, the CEO Mike Callahan allegedly said something that he likely hoped everyone would later forget. You see, he was originally against using Flash memory in what would later become the company's Programmable System Device SoCs because he felt the technology was never going to make it. Well, as the story goes, some people whom have since gone on to such prominent Flash companies as SanDisk, apparently convinced him otherwise. 

I think it's quite safe to say they made the correct decision as Flash has indeed "made it" many times over. Last year, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the worldwide Flash market exceeded the $22 Billion mark. Ah how CEO hindsight can always seem to be traced back to Foot in Mouth Disease. 

Now in its 20^th year, Flash has established itself as a near equal to DRAM. And as demonstrated at the third annual Flash Memory Summit (FMS), Flash continues to find its way into new applications, such as mobile devices and Solid-state Storage Devices (SSDs), and establish itself as the premier memory technology.

Yet all things are not quiet on the Flashian front. Besides all those gigantor San Francisco 49er hopefuls clogging up the Santa Clara Marriott during the FMS, According to Eli Harari, CEO of SanDisk, Flash capacity is clogging up warehouses. But are you ready for the real kicker? Even with all the clogging going on, Harari indicated during his keynote presentation the need for 10 more megafabs. Huh? Say What? Well, in short, the megafabs will be needed because of all the aforementioned new applications Flash is making its way into.

But enough about future predictions. Let's talk new Flash products, starting with those receiving awards at the show.

Innovation Awards 

In the spirit of the Olympics, the FMS handed out "medals" in three categories. Each product entered was judged by a panel of experts based on the following:

• Distinctiveness of the application, technology, or product.
• Central use of Flash memory as a customer solution.
• Technical and business significance.

• The Most Innovative Flash Memory Customer Implementation award went to Network Intercept for its Scan-On-The-Go. We've all been in situations where we needed to use a public computer to access personal information such as emails, photos, and so on. Such places might include a hotel's business center, Internet cafes, and airport terminals. The major issue with such situations is, of course, we literally have no idea what measures have been taken to secure the computer. Worse yet, anyone who used the computer before you may have downloaded a virus-laden file or a key logger. Scan-on-the-go eliminates potential threats to your identity and data by checking the PC for viruses and worms, malware, key logging, and spyware. It accomplishes this via a Flash-based USB device that scans the public computer for problems after being plugged into a USB port. The device is currently compatible with Windows Vista and XP operating systems.
• The Most Innovative Flash Memory Application was given to Samsung for its NAND Flash with Eye-Fi. Have you ever wished your digital camera could speak with your home network so you didn't constantly have to find the camera's USB cable and locate and swap cables on your PC every time you had a few photos to download? Well that's exactly what the Eye-Fi SD device does using your home WiFi-based network. The device works as follows: after you initiate the Eye-Fi, plug it into your SD-compatible camera. Then you go snap some photos and, when you get back home, turn the camera on and the photos are automatically transferred to a pre-designated folder on your host PC via your home's wireless network. Now that's so simple even I could toss the user manual after one use.
• The Most Innovative Flash Memory Technology award went to Spansion for its EcoRAM solution. What happens when you take Spansion's Mirrorbit NOR Flash memory and package it for use in servers? You get EcoRAM, a technology used to replace power-hungry DRAM in data center servers. The result is a slash in energy consumption by 75 percent versus DRAM. Thus you get four-fold the memory capacity of traditional DRAM-only servers using the same amount of power. Bertrand Cambou , President and CEO of Spansion chimed in on the award: "The development of Spansion EcoRAM as a DRAM replacement is a significant milestone in our long-term strategy to expand the scope of Flash memory use outside traditional applications. We're honored to receive the Flash Memory Summit award in recognition for our innovation."

New Products

Of course, beyond the awards, a summit is always a great place to introduce new products or let the world know about recent product updates. The new products and recent updates showcased at the summit include the following:

• Denali's FlashPoint Platform is a PCIe to NAND IP core memory controller architecture and SoC building block. Target applications include PC cache modules, solid state drives (SSD), and ExpressCard devices. The core features an expandable architecture that can support up to 16 lanes, internal and external PCIe buffering, and can be configured to support emerging standards, such as USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0, and NVMHCI 1.0. It also supports both SLC and MLC technologies, and offers sequential read and write speeds up to 200 MB/s.
•  Fusion-io's ioDrive is a Flash-based mass storage device that offers the performance of a SAN in a small form factor with less than 50μs latency, over 120 K random IOPS, and a sustained random write rate of 600 MB/s. The device is primarily targeted at Virtualization (VMware) server applications. According to the company, ioDrive allows you to host four-fold more virtual machines, save/resume virtual machine states in seconds, and avoid service interrupts due to I/O conflicts.
• SanDisk's pSSD is the latest SSD innovation from SanDisk. It is primarily targeted at ultra low-cost notebook computers as the interface is PATA and the capacity ranges from 4 to 16 GB. The device is also relatively fast, offering  sustained read and write speeds of 40 and 17 MB/s, respectively. And what's great about the device is it fits into a standard 1.8" HDD slot, yet at 5 grams, it's one-tenth the weight of a typical HDD.
• EncryptX's SecurMedia and SecurFlash products bring data security to USB, SD, CF, RDX, and other portable storage devices using a simple AES-256-based encryption mechanism. Then, any storage device using SecurMedia or SecurFlash will act like a mini firewall. If the proper password is entered, the user may view a drive's contents and drag new files to the drive, which are then automatically encrypted. This process is seamless and will work regardless of the host. If a SecurMedia or SecurFlash device is moved to another PC, the software will automatically install itself there and prompt the user for a password to access the drive. Once files are moved back off the drive, they are automatically decrypted.
• Smart Modular's Xceed SSD Flash Storage Family is a group of industrial-grade SSDs offered in a variety of form factors and interfaces, including SATA, PATA, and SCSI. One member of the family, the XceedSecure, offers extra security with the EraSure feature. Essentially, EraSure can erase data in seconds and provides sanitization procedures. These features are compliant with IRIG 106-07, chapter 10.8, making the drive ideal for defense applications. The deice also includes destructive erase, which destroys access to a drive, rendering it inoperable. 
• Blunk Microsystems' TargetFFS-NOR and TargetFFS-NAND are the latest Flash file systems (FFS) from Blunk. The TargetFFS family offers a reliable, re-entrant embedded file system that includes POSIX and ANSI C compliant APIs. They ensure your applications don't know that Flash is the storage medium; support dynamic creation/deletion of files, directories, and links; include wear leveling algorithms; support multiple volumes; and guarantee integrity after unexpected resets.
• BITMICRO's E-Disk Altima is a family of high-density SSDs that can be used to replace traditional HDDs or in new applications. The device comes in form factors including 2.5"/3.5" SATA, ATA, IDE, SCSI, SAS, and FC, and is also available in VME SCSI Wide, PMC, Transit, and FC SAN form factors. And with the total capacity ranging from 16 GB to a whopping 6.5 TB, BITMICRO has brought today's HDD capacities to SSDs. 
• Tanisys Technology's Tanisys FX Flash Memory Test System is a brand new system based on the company's successful Model M550 that provides fully automated testing of single and multi-chip package Flash devices. The FX model can test over 3000 devices in parallel, which is 3000 more than I could handle to be sure.
• Entorian's FlashStak TSOP Flash Stacking technology allows for a doubling of the capacity of NAND Flash devices using the same TSOP footprint while maintaining the mechanical ruggedness and reliability of a single TSOP device. For example, if you take a USB  thumb drive that previously had an 8 GB capacity by utilizing a 32 Gb NAND Flash chip on each side of the PCB, without changing the design, you could double that capacity with two 32 Gb Flash chips on each side utilizing Entorian's simple interconnect between the two devices. And it can all be done in a mere 24 hours, thus instantly doubling the number of products in a product line.
• Coughlin Associates' had three Flash-related products at the show:
  1. A book named Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide that presents an overview of the fundamentals of HDDs, optical storage, Flash memory, and other SSD technology. It then covers storage considerations for many applications, including consumer storage in the home and mobile devices. After reading this book, you should understand the best practices for storage selection, integration, and use. Also, you are given the tools to determine the trade-offs between performance, reliability, and cost. The book also offers concrete examples using tear-downs and covering popular products, such as DVRs, iPods, home networks, and automotive applications. 
  2. A report titled Consumer Survey on Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics 2008 covers how various consumer-based media types, such as videos and photos, are used in people's daily lives. For example, it covers the number of digital photographs and home videos made in a year, and the hours of TV watched and recorded. It also provides trends in storage backup, electronic gaming, the use of video recording/playback equipment, and other consumer activities. The result is a deep understanding of the complex relationships between consumer electronics use and storage demand.
  3. A report titled Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics 2008 covers the relationships between data storage, emerging applications, and consumer electronics. This report also details the relationships between increasing data storage requirements in consumer devices and inexpensive digital storage devices, increasing interface and Internet bandwidth, and greater processing power in smaller devices. Trends, such as increased user backup frequency, available content, and content sharing are also explored. And after reading the report, you will also have a deep understanding of the relationship between the device type (Mobile, Home, etc.), media type (Music, Video, Data), and the storage medium (magnetic HDDs, SSDs, Optical).

So for those of you who missed the FMS, I have one simple suggestion: mark your calendars for next year because this event is a must-attend for all embedded and general-purpose hardware engineers. I spoke with several attendees and their overall impression was very positive. The sessions were above par and the exhibitor booths were always buzzing with foot traffic.

Note that I had the pleasure of speaking with some of the conference organizers (Conference Concepts), such as Dr. Lance A. Leventhal, Vice President for Business Development during the show. The overall impression I came away with is that the conference had well over 1000 attendees this year and it costs the organizers roughly $50 per head for a basic meal at the Marriott. For example, the lunch on the first day consisted of Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, fixings (less tomatoes...didn't that particular scare end about two months ago?), potato chips, coffee, fruit, iced tea, and water. At a burger stand, that same meal would probably run you about $10, so it's no wonder they are looking at other options next year.

This does beg the question: How can a name-brand hotel such as the Marriott charge the organizers $50 per head for cold tomato-less burgers?

I surely am not smart enough to know the answer to that one, but hey, at least that was my only complaint of the conference.