Micron Technology has introduced a new serial NAND flash memory technology that the company said will enable easier and more cost-effective expansion of storage capacity for embedded applications in products like television set-top boxes, DVRs, printers and even automobile navigation systems.
The technology, with a chip density starting at 1 gigabit, improves on traditional NOR flash, which typically tops out at a density of 128 megabytes. Company officials said that as many embedded applications transition from merely decoding information to more sophisticated operations like managing multimedia, photos and other data-intensive content, the need for cheap and easy storage expansion is increasingly important.
“There are several embedded applications today that require 128 megabytes or more of storage, and we expect capacity to continue to grow, providing the need for a NAND-based storage alternative to NOR flash,” said Kevin Kilbuck, director of NAND market development for Micron.
Micron said its serial NAND uses the same package type as its parallel NAND product but with a new type of interface that makes it easier to incorporate. Other advantages include compatibility with the industry standard Serial Peripheral Interface; the capability of storing user-generated content directly on the device, thus eliminating the need for a separate NAND chip; and, at 2.64 megabytes per/second, Micron’s serial NAND provides much faster write performance than NOR flash, which falls below .5 MB/s.
The company said it expects volume production to begin in the first quarter of 2009, with even higher-density 4 Gb serial NAND flash products expected soon after.
Micron stock was valued at $2.23 in midday trading Dec. 9, up 16 cents from the opening bell and up 42 cents from its Dec. 5 close. The Boise-based semiconductor giant was upgraded by American Technology Research Dec. 5 from “neutral” to “buy.”