Hitachi Breaks the Density Barrier with Industry's First 256-Mbit Flash Memory Components New Flash Chips Enables Industry's Highest-Density Flash Cards,Delivering Optimized Performance for Next-Generation Portable Computing, Digital Imaging and Industrial Applications

August 24, 1998

Hitachi Breaks the Density Barrier with Industry's First 256-Mbit Flash Memory Components
New Flash Chips Enables Industry's Highest-Density Flash Cards,Delivering Optimized Performance for Next-Generation Portable Computing, Digital Imaging and Industrial Applications

Hitachi, Ltd.(HIT:NYSE) today announced the release of the industry's first 256-Mbit Flash components, enabling the company and its customers to deliver the market's highest-density CompactFlash^TM and PC-ATA cards of up to 192 MBytes and 640 MBytes, respectively. Using a proven 0.25-mm process, these components utilize an enhanced Multi-Level Cell (MLC) technology that features the inherent benefits of high storage densities and lower cost-per-bit while providing enhancements in terms of power consumption and speed. Sample shipments of the 192-MByte CompactFlash^TM and 640-MByte PC-ATA cardswill begin in Q4 1998. Volume availability will begin in Q1 1999. Samples of the 256-Mbit MLC Flash components will be available in Q1 1999 and volume availability will start in Q2 1999.
With superior overall performance, Hitachi's 256-Mbit Flash components are the industry's only solution that truly provides the Flash card write speed and capacity demanded by the emerging requirements of palmtop computers, digital cameras, industrial devices and embedded designs. By offering the industry's highest-capacity CompactFlash^TM and PC-ATA cards, Hitachi is prepared to provide the most effective nonvolatile memory storage solution for current and emerging market needs. Featuring the lowest operating power consumption and fastest write/erase performance, Hitachi's new Flash cards present the ideal data storage medium for portable applications.

Two key market sectors for the 192- and 640-MByte Flash cards include professional digital photography and industrial devices. As digital cameras enter higher- resolution "mega-pixel" generations, the Flash memory utilized to store the images must be able to offer the capacity required for the larger images, as well as the data transfer rates necessary to write the image in a convenient amount of time. Hitachi's new 256-Mbit-based Flash cards provide the only solution to this trend in performance demands by offering superior densities with the fastest write/erase speeds-3 MBytes/sec. or approximately 30 times faster than the industry's current mean performance of MLC-based cards at 100 KB/sec. Further, these Flash cards are based on Hitachi's technology-leading Flash components that feature the industry's fastest erase speed (2 MBytes/sec.) and read speed (greater than 13.4 MBytes/ sec.), essential to the overall operation and performance of any host device.

With the new 192- and 640-MByte cards, Hitachi brings the benefits of solid-state storage to bear on a key sector at the low-end of the hard disk drive market: industrial appliances. These devices-such as electronic portable maintenance manuals and field-hardened PCs-generally require hard drives of 100- to 300-MByte capacities to store files. However, industrial devices are subject to rugged use and prone to shock and vibration that can damage hard disk drives and corrupt their data. With no moving parts and a high resistance to rough treatment, Flash memory has always provided the ideal storage medium for these applications, though it previously could not deliver the necessary storage capacities in a cost-effective manner. Hitachi's 256-Mbit Flash components provide a way for the company and its customers to construct cards that offer densities similar to hard disk drives while offering the data integrity and reliability of Flash.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1997 (ending March 31, 1998) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen (63.8 billion dollars^*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
^*At an exchange rate of 132 yen to the dollar.

Pricing and Availability

Product Name
Capacity Sample Price
(Yen)

256-Mbit Flash Memory
HN29W25611 256-Mbit 12,400

CompactFlash^TM
HB288032C5 32-Mbyte
Open Price

HB288064C5 64-Mbyte

HB288192C5 192-Mbyte

PC-ATA Card
HB288128A5 128-Mbyte

HB288320A5 320-Mbyte

HB288640A5 640-Mbyte

256-Mbit flash memory

Item
Specification

Memory Organization
32M-Word x 8-bit

Operation voltage
3.3V +/- 0.3V / 5.0V +/- 0.5V

External power supply voltage
at 3.3V at 5V

Standby (typ.)
1 micro A 2 micro A

Read (typ.)
20mA 30mA

Write/ Erase (typ.)
20mA 30mA

Read

1st. access (max.)
50 micro s

Serial access (max.)
50ns

Write

Unit
2048-byte

Time (typ.)
1ms

Erase

Unit
2048-byte

Time (typ.)
1ms

Package
48-pin TSOP type-I, 28-pin TCP

Card incorporating 256-Mbit flash memory

Item
CompactFlash^TM PC-ATA card

Interface specifications
PC Card Standard ATA
True IDE Mode

Capacity
32M/64M/192Mbyte 128M/320M/640Mbyte

Operating voltage
3.3V +/- 5.0% / 5.0V +/- 10%

Reprogramming speed
3M-byte / sec.(max.) (6-chip interleave)

External power supply voltage
at 3.3V at 5V at 3.3V at 5V

Sleep(typ.) 0.3mA 0.5mA 0.5mA 1.0mA

Read(typ.) 25mA 40mA 25mA 40mA

Write(typ.)
25mA

45mA

25mA

45mA

Package
CompactFlash^TM
Specification
42.8 x 36.4 x3.3mm³ PC Card Standard(type-II)
Specification
54.0 x 85.6 x 5.0mm³

CompactFlash^TM is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation and is licensed to the CompactFlash^TM Association (CFA). Hitachi is a member of the CFA.

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WRITTEN BY Secretary's Office
All Rights Reserved, Copyright (C) 1998, Hitachi, Ltd.