M-Systems Aims Data Store technology at mobile, embedded iApps

By Bernard Cole
iApplianceWeb
(11/10/02, 11:11:50 PM EDT)

Fremont, Ca. --- Solidstate flash-disk memory vendor M-Systems Inc. has developed a new nonvolatile memory technology that it believes will solve many of the power, reliability and data retention problems that plague the current generation of small footprint and embedded Innternet-centric devices and personal computing appliances ranging from smartphones and PDAs to digital home gateways and telematics systems.

Developed in collaboration with Toshiba, M-Systems' x2 technology enables standard multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash memory for both code and local data storage.

"Our customers in the mobile, embedded and connected devices industries are constantly looking for ways to squeeze more data into their products, while conserving space for advanced features and functionality," said Chuck Schouw, president and CEO, M-Systems Inc.

The need for next generation nonvolatile memory technology in this market segments is crtical, said Alan Niebel, CEO, Web-Feet Research. "Take the simplistic 2G phone architecture which is currently evolving into a 2.5G and 3G computing-platform architecture," he said, pointing out that technologies such as M-Systems' x2 will allow OEMs with the opportunity to design far more sophisticated and higher capacity devices without increasing their cost structure.

Working closely with Toshiba, the world's leading NAND memory manufacturer, M-Systems expects to offer offer x2 technology in multiple products, such as its Mobile DiskOnChip, DiskOnChip and DiskOnKey product lines with quadruple the equivalent NOR capacity, or double the equivalent binary NAND capacity of existing solutions, making possible more intense data storage applications, such as video or MP3 downloads, and reliably secure vital information such as operating system (OS) code or registry files.

Go to www.toshiba.com or www.m-sys.com for more information on this story.

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