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TDK Releases GBDriver^® RA6 Series NAND Flash Memory Controller LSI

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TDK Releases GBDriver^® RA6 Series NAND Flash Memory Controller LSI

New controller supports the latest Flash memory chips and features improved security functions and higher reliability for applications replacing HDDs

http://www.global.tdk.com/news_center/pressTDK Press Release

GBDriver(R) RA6 Series NAND Flash Memory Controller LSI

GBDriver^® RA6 Series NAND Flash Memory Controller LSI

November 14, 2006

TDK Corporation announces development of the GBDriver^® RA6 NAND Flash memory controller LSI. Sales will begin in December.

As the storage capacity of NAND Flash memory increases rapidly with finer designs, memory cell structures and functions are undergoing extreme changes, making it increasingly difficult to maintain compatibility between generations. To address this issue, the GBDriver^® RA6 series of controllers are fully compatible with earlier NAND Flash memory chips and can control the latest two-plane write Flash memories. GBDriver^® RA6 controllers can control up to eight 8-Gbit NAND Flash memory chips for a maximum of 8 GByte.

The GBDriver^® RA6 series features improved NAND Flash memory management methods, and even when data writing to the memory is excessively concentrated, data is not concentrated in one area of the memory, increasing multiple use and capacity of the memory chip and enhancing reliability even when NAND Flash memory chips are used in place of HDDs. GBDriver^® RA6 controllers support Ultra DMA Mode 2, which achieves maximum data transmission speeds of 33.3 MByte/s, making them suitable for controlling the latest Flash memory chips with the industry's fastest data transmission speeds.

* GBDriver^® is a registered trademark of TDK Corporation.

Applications

The main applications are storage applications for operating systems, file systems, and user data on consumer and industrial embedded system devices and IT equipment, and applications with Silicon Disks including hybrid PCs and PCMCIA ATA cards are also anticipated.

Main Features

Supported Flash Memory
GBDriver^® RA6 controllers support the latest two-plane write Flash memories. They support the Flash memory chips from 128 Mbits to 8 Gbits of all Flash Memory venders including new market entrants, addressing a wide range of uses from small capacities for embedded OSs to large capacities for music and video streaming.
Reliable NAND Flash Memory Control
The GBDriver^® RA6 secures expanded spare space for future bad blocks, has improved block control structures within the controller, and is equipped with an address control mechanism structure that can be used even when a large number of inherent bad blocks occur in the Flash memory in a short period.
Improved Power Interruption Tolerance
The GBDriver^® RA6 completely prevents collateral errors that results in corruption of data other than the data being written if power is interrupted when writing data.
High-Speed Read/Write
The GBDriver^® RA6 supports the Ultra DMA host interface and adopts a new Flash memory control format, enabling it to achieve a burst-write performance of 23 MByte/s (equivalent to 150x speed) and a host read performance of 24 MByte/s (equivalent to 160x speed). Optimized write control on the host side provides for write operations at stable transfer rates.
Error Correction and Recovery
The GBDriver^® RA6 is equipped with four-symbol (40 bit)/sector ECC on the fly. ECC functions have been improved with regard to the bit error phenomenon seen when the latest NAND Flash memory is used and an auto-recovery function added to correct errors automatically within the controller when reading data.
Other Functions
- Total cluster number setting function (clipping function)
  The number of times that data can be written to a flash memory chip can be increased by reducing the number of physical allocation blocks in the data area.
- Protection Functions
  Incorporation of an ATA-standard protection function allows customers to set and remove a password to protect key data.
- Smart Command Support
  Usage status and bad block status are easily managed on Flash memory chips by Smart Command.
Customer Support
TDK has developed and produced the GBDriver^® series of NAND Flash memory controllers since 2000 and provides technical support to customers in Japan and overseas backed up by its advanced technologies including dispatch of field application engineers and implementation of reliability monitoring functions, for which there is strong demand in the embedded system market.

Production and Sales Plan