Toshiba Pushing NAND Memory

Toshiba has announced a new series of embedded NAND Flash memories for mobile phones offering both a configurable single-level cell (SLC) memory area and a multi-level cell (MLC) memory area, allowing applications and data to be stored on the same chip. The five memories in the mobileLBA-NAND series range in capacity from 2- to 32-gigabits(1) (Gb). The 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb versions can be allocated as SLC up to their full capacity, while the 16Gb and 32Gb versions can support up to 8Gb of SLC, offering manufacturers greater flexibility in allocating memory in their products. Samples of mobileLBA-NAND packaged in MCPs will be available from August 2007.

This development allows cell phone manufacturers that have been using SLC NAND with a standard NAND interface in multi-chip packages (MCPs) to easily take advantage of the lower cost and higher density advantages of MLC NAND while optimizing NAND performance to meet their requirements.

More and more mobile phones integrate a high-resolution camera and audio player. They rely on high-density memory to store images and music, as well to store boot program and log data for the mobile phone system. Toshiba’s new memories meet these demands in a novel solution that also reduces development burdens on manufacturers. Continue>>