Thanks Stockhawk. This sums up what I've been finding fairly well. I do believe SNDK is in a better position. I just feel that because their key technology, CompactFlash, has been made an unrestricted 'defacto standard', they cannot be a gorilla and a basket of the two is in order as you suggest.
I'm eagerly waiting for someone to make a case for Broadcom so I can see how it would apply to SSTI's Combo Memory. I am concerned about investing in SNDK which seems to be the next Iomega at this point. Tremendous growth for a few years but no new product on the way so a remarkable flop afterward. They may have something up their sleeve but I don't know. I do, however, have good reason to believe that SSTI has new products now which could sustain them beyond CompactFlash...
SST Enters Application-Specific Memory Arena with Family of Highly Integrated FLASH and SRAM Combination Devices
New Family to Include Industry?s First Monolithic Standalone Flash and SRAM ComboMemory Solution
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SUNNYVALE, Calif., August 30, 1999 - SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc., NASDAQ: SSTI) today announced that it has expanded its market presence with a new class of device that marks the company?s entry into the application-specific memory arena. SST?s ComboMemory? family of products represents highly-integrated solutions that include the industry?s first monolithic integration of flash memory and static random-access memory (SRAM) in standalone memory ICs. The initial products include the SST31LH041, which integrates 4 Mbit of flash memory and 1 Mbit of SRAM on a single silicon chip, and the SST31LH021, which integrates 2 Mbit of flash memory and 1 Mbit of SRAM on a single silicon chip. The company has also introduced an MCP (Multi-Chip Package) product, the SST32LH802, which combines 8 Mbit of flash memory and 2 Mbit of SRAM with a x16 organization. SST?s new monolithic (31 series) and MCP (32 series) ComboMemory products blend the company?s high-performance, high-reliability proprietary SuperFlash technology with a low-power SRAM process, offering designers a unique solution that provides a low EMI/low power and small footprint alternative to traditional implementations that incorporate discrete flash and SRAM devices.
?The development of our ComboMemory family is a very natural progression for the company and underscores SST?s commitment to our customers? needs with products that deliver value-added solutions,? said Bing Yeh, president and CEO, SST. ?The mobile communications and portable consumer electronics markets more and more are requiring both data and code storage within a small footprint. This latest technology roadmap for ComboMemory is another example of SST?s ability to respond to market demand by leveraging the versatility of SuperFlash technology, its compatibility with logic processing and easy integration with other memory technologies such as SRAM.?
The target applications for SST?s new ComboMemory product family include all applications needing both SRAM and flash memory. The ComboMemory family is ideal for mobile communications, portable consumer electronics devices and Internet appliance applications. Specific applications include the following:
Pagers, cell phones, GPS and other mobile communication devices
PDA, electronic organizer and other handheld computers
Portable games and toys
PCMCIA fax/modems
Handheld Point-of-Sale (POS) systems
Set-top boxes and Internet appliances
Portable DVD players, digital still cameras and camcorders
?SST?s introduction of its ComboMemory product family is evidence of a significant industry achievement and is a superior alternative to competing standalone flash and SRAM technology,? said Alan Niebel, director of nonvolatile memory, Semico Research Corporation. ?SST?s SuperFlash technology, because of its inherent CMOS logic compatibility, has a unique advantage in that it can be easily integrated with basic SRAM architecture. By integrating flash memory and SRAM onto a monolithic standalone silicon chip, SST will enable designers of portable consumer appliances to achieve cost-effective system designs that are low-power, low-voltage, high-performance and in a smaller form factor.? Niebel adds that about 10-15% of pagers, set-top boxes and cell phones today are configured to use combination flash and SRAM memory devices. The market growth in this area is expected to be up to 60% by 2002.
The 31 series ComboMemory family will initially consist of two products: the monolithic SST31LH021, a 2M flash + 1M SRAM (256K x 8 flash + 128K x 8 SRAM) device and the monolithic SST31LH041, a 4M flash + 1M SRAM (512K x 8 flash + 128K x 8 SRAM) device. The 32 series ComboMemory family?s initial product is the MCP SST32LH802, an 8M flash + 2M SRAM (512K x 16 flash + 128K x 16 SRAM) device. The highly integrated devices offer a number of novel features that distinguish them beyond other, discrete implementations. For example, the ComboMemory family incorporates SST?s SoftPartition? flash memory architecture, which allows system designers to seamlessly partition the data and code into small, granular 4 KByte sectors. This small, uniform sector size allows designers more flexibility by allowing them to balance the amount of memory used for code and data storage depending on the application. By maximizing the utilization of memory, designers can achieve greater efficiency, which enables them to create end-user applications based on cost-sensitive system requirements.
In addition to the uniform small sector architecture, the ComboMemory products enable concurrent memory operation, a feature that maximizes system throughput. SST?s ComboMemory products provide the added functionality of being able to simultaneously read from or write to the SRAM bank while erasing or programming in the flash memory bank. The SRAM memory bank can be read or written while the flash memory bank performs sector erase, bank erase, or byte program concurrently. The SST31LHXXX series of products focus on market segments requiring low power but high performance operations. SST will also offer, in the very near future, an SST31LPXXX family whereby both the operating power and standby current will be substantially reduced. Unlike traditional discrete flash and SRAM device implementations, the ComboMemory product family integrates on-chip logic allowing the system designer to alter the flash contents ?on the fly.?
The SST32LH802 was designed as a space-savings solution for today?s PDA as well as GSM cellular phone applications. The SST32LH802 can replace as many as three discrete components in traditional cell phone applications. The SST32LH802, like the 31 monolithic series, provides benefits over discrete solutions such as lower system cost-of-ownership by reducing the number of components and footprint, simplifying the system design and improving system performance and reliability. For cellular phone applications, SST?s 32 series is an optimal solution because of the low-power, low EMI and small footprint advantages.
Key Features of New ComboMemory Product Family
Single 3.0-3.6V Read and Write Operation
Concurrent Operation
- Read from or write to SRAM while erase/program flash
Flexible, uniform sector architecture
- 4 KByte small sector erase capability
Low power consumption
- Active current: 10mA (typical) for flash and 30mA (typical) for SRAM Read
- Standby current: 700æA (typical) for SST31LHXXX products
10æA (typical) for SST31LPXXX products
Fast Read Access Speeds
- SST31LH041/021: Flash: 70 ns; SRAM: 25 ns
- SST32LH802: Flash: 70 ns; SRAM: 70 ns
Latched address and data for flash
Flash Fast Sector Erase and Byte Program
- Sector erase time: 18 ms (typical)
- Bank erase time: 70 ms (typical)
- Byte program time: 14 æs (typical)
- Bank rewrite time: 4 seconds (typical)
Superior reliability with SST?s SuperFlash technology
- Typical 100,000 cycles endurance and 100 years of data retention
JEDEC standard command set and package/pinout for ease of use and quick installation of the monolithic solution
- 32-pin TSOP (8 mm x 13.4 mm)
- 32-pin TSOP (8 mm x 14 mm)
- 40-pin TSOP (10 mm x 14 mm)
Small footprint and low profile plastic ball grid array package for maximum space-saving of the MCP solution
- 48-pin LBGA (10 mm x 12 mm)
Todd |
