The NANDrive line from Silicon Storage Technology are solid state flash drives on integrated circuits. The drives are targeted to OEMs, who would incorporate them into their hardware designs, providing ATA/IDE compatible storage to their devices. Targeted devices for the drives range from pagers and cell phones to digital cameras and portable computers.

The primary feature of the drives is their ATA/IDE compatibility. The vendor states that the drives include a built-in microcontroller and file management firmware that enable them to communicate via standard ATA interfaces and therefore do not require additional or proprietary vendor software (such as Flash File System or Memory Technology Driver) for access. The NANDrive supports ATA/IDE with up to PIO Mode-4 and Multi-word DMA Mode-2 interface (PIO Mode-6, Multi-word DMA Mode-4 and Ultra DMA Mode-4 interface in the later offerings).

The BGA-package IC can be mounted to the system motherboard, and ships with a unique 10 digit serial ID number (an additional 10 digits can be programmatically added by the customer). An external media bus facilitates connectivity to additional NAND flash components.

Other features include:

- Four password protected zones for "hidden" boot code. Each zone can be marked read-only or completely hidden (read-disabled), accessible only by providing the password

- A write protect PIN, enabling the drive to be write protected as protection against accidental or malicious overwrites

- Hardware 8-bit ECC engine

- Firmware programmable multi-tasking NAND interface

- Purge command support

Three versions of the NANDrive are now offered by the vendor.

The original NANDrive--known as the "micro" line--ships in an 12 x 18 x 1.4mm form factor and boasts sustained data transfer performance of up to 8 MB/sec write and 10 MB/sec read. This drive is available in capacities of 128, 256, and 512 MB.

The mini NANDrives are offered with capacities now ranging from 512 to 8 GB in seven different models. The mini NANDrive comes in a 12 x 24 x 1.4mm package and features sustained read/write performance of up to 30 MB/sec. Two flavors of the mini are served: The original minis for commercial applications (rated from 0 to 70 degrees Celsius) with capacities of 1, 2, 4, or 8 GB; and the newest "ruggedized" entries in the line, which are targeted for industrial uses (temperature rated from -40 to 85 degrees Celsius) and are expected to be offered in 512 MB, 1, and 2 GB capacities.

The new ruggedized drives are priced starting at $17.25/unit in batches of 10,000 and are sampling now, with production shipments scheduled for April, 2008.

Contact Silicon Storage Technology for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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