IDT bows first NVMe flash controller

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Integrated Device Technology, banking on the upside of high-speed interfaces and big growth in the solid-state drive (SSD) market, today announced a NVM Express (NVMe) enterprise flash memory controller with native support for PCI Gen 3. The product is the first for the 18-month-old NVMe 1.0 spec, which defines an optimized register interface, command set and feature set for PCI Express SSDs.

IDT's new flash memory controller family consists of two versions:

• 16-channel with PCIe x4 Gen 3 (89HF16P04AG3)
•  32-channel with PCIe x8 Gen 3 (89HF32P08AG3).

A Garter forecast puts the market for PCIe enterprise SSD units at about 843,000 this year, rising to 3.5 million by 2015.

"Mainstream applications are going to be dominated by NVMe in the coming years," said Kam Esghi, senior director of IDT's enterprise computing division.

Selected features of the 89HF16P04AG3

• Programmable architecture enables custom firmware
• SLC, MLC, and Enterprise MLC Flash with Toggle and ONFI interface
• 16 independent 8-bit Flash channels that each support up to 8 targets
• PCIe Gen3 x4 or dual independent PCIe Gen3 x2 (active/active or active/standby) host interface
• Standard NVM Express control interface
• Up to 2TB Flash capacity using 64Gb Flash
• Packaged in a 27mm x27mm 1024-pin FCBGA with 0.8mm ball spacing

Selected features of 89HF32P08AG3

• Programmable architecture enables custom firmware
• SLC, MLC, and Enterprise MLC Flash with Toggle and ONFI interface
• 32 independent 8-bit Flash channels that each support up to 8 targets
• PCIe Gen3 x8 or dual independent PCIe Gen3 x4 (active/active or active/standby) host interface
• Standard NVM Express control interface
• Up to 4TB Flash capacity using 64Gb Flash
• Option ROM allows PCIe Flash controller to be used as a boot device
• Encryption (XTS-AES-256)
• Packaged in a 40mm x40mm 1517-pin FCBGA with 1mm ball spacing

Esghi said samples are now available with volume production slated for 2013. Pricing in volume, depending on configuration, is expected to be $100-$200 each.

For more information, please see IDT's product page.