M-Systems Unveils The World's First 32MB Monolithic Flash Disk
M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd., a leader in flash disk data storage products, today announced the release of the DiskOnChip Millennium Plus, the world's first 32MB monolithic (single die) flash disk. Designed for the embedded systems, Internet appliances (IAs) and networking markets, DiskOnChip Millennium Plus offers new data protection and security features not previously available on a flash disk to prevent customers' software, proprietary data and products from being duplicated.
Developed and manufactured in partnership with Toshiba Corporation, the DiskOnChip Millennium Plus is the newest member of M-Systems' line of Disk0nChip® flash disk products that provide the functionality of a mechanical hard drive on a solidstate silicon chip.
"The introduction of the DiskOnChip Millennium Plus represents a number of advances for the industry and product line in the areas of increased performance, capacity and security," said Dov Moran, president and CEO, M-Systems. "For the next generation of Web phones, set-top boxes, thin clients and Internet access devices, M-Systems built upon its proprietary DiskOnChip technology to deliver the next standard of local storage solutions."
Unprecedented Data Security and Protection
M-Systems' DiskOnChip Millennium Plus contains advanced data security and protection capabilities not found on any other flash disk in the market. Customers can read protect and/or write protect as much of the flash disk as desired to keep data and code from being read, modified or damaged. There is also a one-time programming (OTP) area of 6K that the customer can write to and lock permanently, enabling license control and system authentication.
These security and protection features of Millennium Plus, along with each flash disk's unique identification (ID) number residing on the silicon, provide IA and embedded systems designers with the ability to reliably track individual products and the benefit of copy protection for software, data and the product itself.
Applied to cable operators for example, DiskOnChip Millennium Plus' unique silicon-based ID and OTP capabilities can identify and authenticate individual set-top boxes on the network to help reduce fraud. M-Systems plans to offer additional data security solutions within its DiskOnChip products in the near future utilizing its new data security technology gained by the acquisition of Fortress U&T Ltd. last September.
Technical Advancements
The DiskOnChip Millennium Plus represents the first time a complex controller has been combined with flash memory on a single piece of silicon to form a monolithic 32MB flash disk. This first device in the Plus series offers complete hard disk emulation, and boot replacement capability. Instead of needing to utilize a separate boot device for BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) storage in addition to a flash disk, manufactures may use the DiskOnChip Millennium Plus for both functions.
"With a hardware-protected 1K boot partition and 32MB of flash disk storage in Millennium Plus' advantageously small 48-pin TSOP-I package, it is exciting to think about the efficiency that we can now offer to designers," said Yigal Ben-Zeev, director of marketing, M-Systems DiskOnChip Division. "With Millennium Plus, Internet access device and embedded systems customers can design their products with fewer components, offering cost savings together with real estate savings on mother boards resulting a more efficient design."
DiskOnChip Architecture - Increased Performance and Scalability
DiskOnChip Millennium Plus can sustain a system write speed of over LIMB per second and a read speed of more than 2.4MB per second, but this performance pales in comparison to its burst transfer rates. At 20MB per second in either direction, the DiskOnChip Millennium Plus offers an impressive burst read speed and the fastest burst write speed on any flash disk device in the world.
Compared to M-Systems' 8MB DiskOnChip Millennium, the 32MB Millennium Plus offers up to twice the read/write performance in systems using 16 or 32 bit word size. The DiskOnChip Millennium Plus is based on advanced 0.16 micron process NAND flash technology and a configurable 16/8 bit internal flash architecture achieved through co-development with Toshiba.
About M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd.
M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd. is a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative data storage products, known as flash disks, which are primarily used in embedded systems, Internet appliances and telecom/networking markets. The Company's flash disks provide the functionality of a mechanical hard drive on a solid-state silicon chip. M-Systems was first to bring to market a complete flash disk in a single die, using breakthrough DiskOnChip Millennium technology. The Company's products are based on its patented TrueFFS technology and include the DiskOnChip®, DiskOnKeyTM, and Fast Flash Disk (FFD) product families.
M-Systems, Inc., 8371 Central Ave., Suite A, Newark, CA 94560. Tel: 510-494-2090; Fax: 510-494-5545.