Date: 16/01/2012

400 mega-transfers per second flash interface IP from Cadence

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. has expanded its Flash IP offering to include support for the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) 3.0 specification.

ONFI 3 specification simplifies the design of high-performance computing platforms, such as solid state drives and enterprise storage solutions; and consumer devices, such as tablets and smartphones that integrate NAND Flash memory. The new specification defines speeds of up to 400 mega-transfers per second. In addition to the new ONFI 3 specification, the Cadence Flash and controller IP also support the Toggle 2.0 specification.

"NAND flash is very dramatically growing in the computing segment and is no longer just for storing songs, photos, and videos," said Jim Handy, director, at Objective Analysis. "The result is that the bulk of future NAND growth will consist of chips sporting high-speed interfaces. Cadence support of ONFI 3 and other high-speed interfaces is coming at the right time for designers of SSDs and other systems."

Cadence says its controller and PHY IP implement advanced capabilities of the standard including chip-enable interleaving, which results in significantly improved system performance when dealing with multiple flash devices, as has become common in high-end mobile devices and SSDs. The IP is backward-compatible with existing ONFI and Toggle standards. The existing Cadence IP offering supports the ONFI 1, ONFI 2, Toggle 1 and Toggle 2 specifications, and also provides asynchronous device support.

The Cadence ONFI 3 memory controller and PHY IP are available now.