 |
| ATA-5 Compliant Flash Memory Controller |
| “HN29W210H01FE-1” |
Tokyo, November 28, 2001— Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) today announced
the HN29W210H01FE-1 as the industry’s first ATA-5*1
compliant flash memory controller, equipped with an Ultra DMA data
transfer mode*2, for industrial applications
such as silicon disks and communication applications such as routers.
Mass production will begin in February 2002 in Japan.
The HN29W210H01FE-1 is a controller for 1-gigabyte to 8-gigabyte flash
disk systems that demand high speed and high reliability. It employs
Ultra DMA to achieve a fast random write speed of 8.5 Mbytes/sec (max.),
four times faster than previous Hitachi products, and a random sector
read speed of 14 Mbytes/sec (max.), seven times faster than previous
Hitachi products.
The 32 -Mbyte (256-Mbit) HN29W25611WT-80 and 64 -Mbyte (512-Mbit)
HN29W51214WT-80 are also being released as AND-type flash memories
for chipsets with this controller, with mass production also scheduled
to begin in February 2002. These chipsets offer a one million rewrite
capability.
[Background]
In industrial fields that have previously used small-capacity HDDs,
there is a growing trend away from HDDs to silicon disks comprising
flash memory and a controller, because of their small size, low power
consumption, and excellent vibration tolerance, as well as the small
system maintenance load they entail . As well as high reliability,
silicon disks offer an extremely short interval between command input
and data reading since there is no head seek time as incurred in HDDs,
and for this reason they are beginning to be employed as cache disks
for system cache use in communication applications such as routers.
Hitachi currently provides for such applications with ATA-1 compliant
CompactFlashTM*3 and PC-ATA
cards, but the future will bring further demands for 1-gigabyte to
8-gigabyte large-capacity, high-speed flash disk systems. To meet
these needs, Hitachi has developed a high-speed flash memory controller
with ATA-5 compliant interface specifications.
[About this Product]
Major features of the HN29W210H01FE-1 flash memory controller are
summarized below.
| (1) |
Industry’s first ATA-5 compliant flash memory
controller By using a Hitachi H8S high-performance 16-bit microcomputer
core and revising the flash memory write algorithm, it has been
possible to produce the industry’s first flash memory controller
supporting the Ultra DMA data transfer mode, and achieve higher
speed.
In case of using Ultra DMA, system performance figures achieved
are a random write speed of 8.5 Mbytes/sec(max.) and a random
read speed of 14 Mbytes/sec(max.), four-fold and seven-fold improvements
respectively over Hitachi's HB28B256C6 256-Mbyte CompactFlash.
|
| (2) |
One million rewrite capability
In a system employing the HN29W25611WT-80 (32 -Mbyte) or HN29W51214WT-80
(64 -Mbyte) chipset flash memory, the memory can be rewritten
one million times, providing high reliability. |
This controller does not support a PCMCIA interface.
The package used is a 176-pin LQFP.
Future plans will expand product line up by developing higher reliability
and higher speed products.
| Notes: |
1. |
ATA-5: An ATA (AT Attachment) interface standard
established by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). |
| |
2. |
Ultra DMA: A data transfer method defines from ATA-4
onward, offering higher speed and a lighter host system load than
conventional PIO transfer*.
*PIO transfer: A data transfer method defines from ATA-1 onward.
CPU does data transfer directly. |
| |
3. |
CompactFlash: CompactFlash is a trademark of SanDisk
Corporation of the United States and is licensed to the CFA (CompactFlash
Association). Hitachi, Ltd. is a member of the CFA. |
< Typical Applications >
- Systems requiring high-speed random access of recording devices
- Systems requiring vibration tolerance in recording devices
- Systems requiring low power consumption for recording devices
< Prices in Japan >(For Reference)
| Product
Code |
Sample Price (Yen) |
| HN29W210H01FE-1 |
4,000 |
< Specifications >
| Item |
HN29W210H01FE-1 Flash
Memory Controller |
| Interface (ATA-5) |
PIO |
Mode 4 (16.6 Mbytes/sec) |
| Multiword DMA |
Mode 2 (16.6 Mbytes/sec) |
| Ultra DMA |
Mode 4 (66.6 Mbytes/sec) |
| Random read speed (system
performance*) |
14 Mbytes/sec (max.) |
| Random write speed (system
performance*) |
8.5 Mbytes/sec (max.) |
| Operating voltage |
Both 3.3 V ± 5% and
5.0 ± 10% |
| Package |
176-pin LQFP |
Note: * This is a system performance figure, and is not a guaranteed
value after user mounting. |
