32-Mbit quad I-O serial flash memory supports high speed burst data rates

CAMBRIDGE, UK — Silicon Storage Technology announces what the company claims to be the fastest quad-bit serial flash memory, operating from 1.8V and capable of sustaining 320 Mbit per s burst data rates.

Featuring an 80 MHz operating frequency and a specialized instruction set, the 26WF series serial quad I/O (SQI) family of 4-bit multiplexed I/O serial interface devices enables execute-in-place (XIP) capability, allowing programs to be stored and executed directly from the flash memory without the need for code shadowing on an SRAM.

The 26WF Series marries the performance typically associated with parallel flash memory, with the low pin count and space savings of serial flash memory, plus reduced power. This combination of high performance and low power consumption makes it well suited for mobile handsets, Bluetooth headsets, GPS devices and other small form factor, portable electronics.

This announcement builds on the company's 3.0V SQI flash products, the 26VF series. Both 26 series devices from SST feature a novel read memory indexing feature that enables the devices to achieve the industry's fastest random access performance of any quad-bit serial memory.

Read memory indexing allows the system to jump from one address to another within a 256-Byte page, within a 64-KByte block or from one block to another using indirect addressing. This results in a significant reduction in the number of clock cycles and dramatically accelerates data access.

With sustained burst data rates of up to 320 Mbit/s, the 26WF series devices provide additional system speed and performance while reducing access time. The devices support 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-Byte burst mode operation with wrap around.

This feature allows designers to execute code in burst snippets for RAM-less applications or fill cache line buffers for applications where the system architecture uses pipelining to maximize bus bandwidth.

The 26WF Series SQI devices offer memory write performance enhancements to improve overall device performance, including flexible erase capability to erase small block sectors on the chip in as little as 25-ms or the entire flash memory chip in 50-ms. The devices also support write suspend and resume operation so a program can suspend a write operation to access another block of memory within the same clock cycle.

The chips offer a reliability of 100,000 cycles endurance (typical) and greater than 100 years data retention. The active read current of the devices is only 15-mA (typical at 80 MHz) and standby current is a mere 10 microA (typical).

To ensure code security, all 26WF Series devices support software write protection for individual blocks, the upper and lower 64-KBytes of memory are partitioned into smaller 8-KByte sectors that can both read- and write-lock. In addition, the devices include a one-time programmable secure ID area, consisting of a 64-bit factory programmed unique ID and a 192-bit user programmable block.

All 26WF series SQI devices are available in both commercial and industrial temperature ranges, and are offered in an 8-contact WSON (6 x 5-mm) or 8-lead SOIC (200 mil) package. The first product in this series is the 32 Mbit SST26WF032.

Samples of the product are available now to select customers, with volume production scheduled for Q1 2010.

More info at http://www.sst.com