Micron Makes Advancements In Mobile Memory Space
With Mobile World Congress just around the corner, not to mention rival
SanDisk pumping out a few self-flattering press releases regarding NAND
memory earlier this week, Micron has dropped a bomb of new information
in the mobile memory space.
For starters, Micron is introducing a suite of NAND software solutions for mobile handset designers looking to simplify the development process of NAND technology into their applications. NANDcode supports all major mobile operating systems including Windows Mobile 6, Linux and Symbian (though there's no mention of Apple's OS X and Google's Android systems), and is "optimized to derive the greatest benefit and full feature set of Micron's ONFI-standard SLC NAND technology." Furthermore, the company is announcing that it's currently sampling the industry's highest density all-in-one NAND-based MCP, a solution including 16GB of MLC NAND, for high-end mobile phones. Said MCP utilizes the company's 32-gigabit, 34-nanometer MLC NAND technology, which raises the stakes yet again for capacity levels (now up to 16GB) in NAND Flash devices.
Moving
on, we see Micron and Nanya jointly announcing that they have
co-developed a low-power DDR2 DRAM technology; separately, Micron is
bragging that its portfolio includes 512Mb and 1Gb die, reaching 4Gb
solutions. In related news, Micron's mobile LPDDR2 portfolio operates at
1.2-volts, reducing the devices memory power consumption as much as
50-percent when compared to LPDDR1, and that's while delivering
transfer speeds of up to 1,066Mbps.
Out of all this mayhem, we're particularly excited about the new 34-nanometer NAND process, which could soon lead to more Flash-based storage within future phones. We'll always appreciated those microSD expansion slots, but we'd feel a lot better starting off with 32GB or more rather than 4/8/16GB like we're used to seeing.
For starters, Micron is introducing a suite of NAND software solutions for mobile handset designers looking to simplify the development process of NAND technology into their applications. NANDcode supports all major mobile operating systems including Windows Mobile 6, Linux and Symbian (though there's no mention of Apple's OS X and Google's Android systems), and is "optimized to derive the greatest benefit and full feature set of Micron's ONFI-standard SLC NAND technology." Furthermore, the company is announcing that it's currently sampling the industry's highest density all-in-one NAND-based MCP, a solution including 16GB of MLC NAND, for high-end mobile phones. Said MCP utilizes the company's 32-gigabit, 34-nanometer MLC NAND technology, which raises the stakes yet again for capacity levels (now up to 16GB) in NAND Flash devices.
Moving
on, we see Micron and Nanya jointly announcing that they have
co-developed a low-power DDR2 DRAM technology; separately, Micron is
bragging that its portfolio includes 512Mb and 1Gb die, reaching 4Gb
solutions. In related news, Micron's mobile LPDDR2 portfolio operates at
1.2-volts, reducing the devices memory power consumption as much as
50-percent when compared to LPDDR1, and that's while delivering
transfer speeds of up to 1,066Mbps. Out of all this mayhem, we're particularly excited about the new 34-nanometer NAND process, which could soon lead to more Flash-based storage within future phones. We'll always appreciated those microSD expansion slots, but we'd feel a lot better starting off with 32GB or more rather than 4/8/16GB like we're used to seeing.
