Anyone have any insight into the following. Looks pretty positive to me.
"Monday July 10, 3:33 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SST Enters Embedded Mass Storage Market With Flash ATA-Disk Chip Products
New 8 MByte to 64 MByte Product Family is Industry's First Single Device Solid-State Disk with IDE Hard Disk Drive Compatibility
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 2000-- SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.)(Nasdaq:SSTI - news) today announced that it has entered the embedded mass data storage market with the introduction of a flash memory-based ATA-Disk Chip (ADC) product family. Utilizing the company's proprietary SuperFlash® technology for the ATA controller, SST's ADC is the industry's first ATA/IDE protocol-compatible solid-state mass data storage product housed in a multi-chip packaged device. SST's ADC uses a standard ATA/IDE protocol and can be used as a replacement for conventional IDE hard disk drives. The new product family is ideal for embedded mass data storage applications that require low-power and high-performance yet at the same time, smaller and more reliable mass data storage. These applications include set-top boxes; thin client systems; network computers; Internet appliances; PDAs, cellular phones, MP3 players; digital cameras and other digital handheld devices.
SST's ADC family provides complete IDE hard disk drive functionality and compatibility in a single device. The ADC has built-in microcontroller and file management firmware that supports the ATA standard interface. Because SST's ADC supports the standard ATA-protocol, the host system does not require additional or proprietary software, such as Flash File System (FFS) or Memory Technology Driver (MTD) software to support the ADC. The ATA driver is a standard part of all major operating systems such as Windows 95/98/2000/NT/CE, MAC, Linux, UNIX, etc., and no additional BIOS or OS modification is necessary.
``The announcement of our ADC family underscores SST's commitment to provide our customers with nonvolatile memory solutions that enable them to achieve fast time-to-market and take advantage of emerging market applications,'' said Bing Yeh, president and CEO of SST. ``We believe the ubiquity of wireless data transfer to be enabled by the Bluetooth technology in the future may constrain the growth of removable flash card products. Our entry into the embedded mass data storage market allows SST to target a potentially multi-billion dollar digital electronics market that will benefit greatly from a semiconductor equivalent to a hard disk drive.''
SST's initial ADC products are packaged in a 32-pin DIP package and are available in a range of capacities from 8 MByte to 64 MByte. SST's ADC supports both 5.0V (SST58SDxxx series) and 3.3V (SST58LDxxx series) operation. SST also plans to announce additional packages and higher density offerings of the ADC in the future.
In addition to supporting ATA interfaces, SST's ADC products integrate advanced features critical to the embedded mass data storage markets. The ADC family includes a Write Protect (WP) pin to protect contents from external erase or over write. This feature is mandatory for secure information data storage for applications such as video-on-demand, interactive gaming, etc. The ADC pin assignment is designed to match existing IDE signal traces on the motherboard for simple design integration.
``SST's ADC family is a perfect solution for the nonvolatile mass data storage needs of embedded products,'' said Derek Best, senior vice president of sales and marketing at SST. ``The product family's common pin-out enables easy upward and downward migration in capacity. The ADC's ruggedness, small size and ease of system integration, make it a superior alternative to standard IDE hard disk drives in embedded applications.''
Other applications of the ATA-Disk Chip product family include industrial and medical applications such as industrial measurement devices, point-of-sale (POS) scanners and global positioning systems (GPS).
Key Features of SST's ATA-Disk Chip Family
ATA/IDE standard interface
512 Bytes per sector
ATA command set compatible
Supports data transfer speed up to PIO Mode-4
Single voltage read and write operation
5.0 Volt-only for SST58SDxxx
3.3 Volt-only for SST58LDxxx
Low power consumption
Active mode: 30 mA/50 mA (3.3V/5.0V) (typical)
Sleep mode: 200 microA/300 microA (3.3V/5.0V) (maximum)
Data transfer rate to/from host
20 MB/s burst at 5.0V
6.6 MB/s burst at 3.3V
Sustained write performance
Up to 1.7 MB/sec (host to flash)
Zero power data retention
Batteries not required for data storage
Support for both commercial and industrial temperature range
0(degree)C to 70(degree)C for operating commercial
-40(degree)C to 85(degree)C for operating industrial
-50(degree)C to 100(degree)C for non-operating (storage)
Extremely rugged and reliable
Built-in ECC support corrects 3 Bytes of error per 512
Byte sector
Endurance: 1,000,000 cycles (typical)
Greater than 1,000,000 hours MTBF
Intelligent ATA/IDE Controller
Built-in microcontroller with intelligent firmware
Built-in Flash File System
Pricing and Availability
Sample quantities of the SST58SDxxx and the SST58LDxxx in 32-pin DIP packages and 8 MByte to 64 MByte densities are available now with production scheduled to begin in August 2000. Please see chart below for pricing information.
ATA-Disk Chip Product Family
Model Number Density Price(a)
SST58SD008 8 MB $22.00
SST58SD016 16 MB $35.00
SST58SD024 24 MB $47.00
SST58SD032 32 MB $60.00
SST58SD048 48 MB $85.00
SST58SD064 64 MB $115.00
(a) All pricing listed above is for 5.0V products in 100K
quantities. For pricing on 3.3V products, please contact SST.
About SuperFlash Technology
SST's SuperFlash technology is a NOR type, split-gate cell architecture which uses a reliable thick-oxide process with fewer manufacturing steps resulting in a low-cost, nonvolatile memory solution with excellent data retention and higher reliability. The split-gate NOR SuperFlash architecture facilitates a simple and flexible design suitable for high performance, high reliability, small or medium sector size, in- or off-system programming and a variety of densities, all in a single CMOS-compatible technology.
About Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.
Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., SST designs, manufactures and markets a diversified range of nonvolatile memory solutions, based on proprietary, patented SuperFlash technology, for high volume applications in the digital consumer, networking, wireless communications and Internet computing markets. SST's product families include high-functionality flash memory components, CompactFlash card mass storage products and 8-bit microcontrollers with on-chip flash memory. SST also offers its SuperFlash technology for embedded applications through its world-class manufacturing partners and technology licensees IBM, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., Seiko Epson Corp., TSMC-Acer Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TASMC) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC). TSMC offers SuperFlash under its trademark Emb-FLASH(TM). Further information on SST can be found on the company's Web site at ssti.com.
For more information about SST and the company's comprehensive list of product offerings, please call 888/SST-CHIP or 888/221-1178 (North America) or 732/544-2873 (International) for SST's literature fax-on-demand service. Information can also be requested via email to sfoster@ssti.com or through SST's website at ssti.com. SST is located at 1171 Sonora Court, Sunnyvale, Calif.; telephone: 408/735-9110; fax: 408/735-9036.
Note to Editors: The SST logo and SuperFlash are registered trademarks of Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. Emb-FLASH is a trademark of TSMC.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.
Scott Foster, 408/523-7739
sfoster@ssti.com
or
Tsantes & Associates
Ricky Gradwohl, 408/369-1500 ex. 31
ricky@tsantes.com" |
