Low-power flash design is introduced by AMD

Electronic News, Feb 5, 1996 by Andrew MacLellan

Sunnyvale, Calif.--Advanced Micro Devices took the wraps off its first family of 2.7V single power supply flash memory chips here last week with a design the company claims will help drive the low voltage read, write and erase needs of the cellular phone and networking markets for the next several years.

According to AMD, the 8-megabit Am29LV800, with an extended operating range of 2.7-3.6V, will migrate into dozens of emerging digital consumer products, excite new applications and ensure flash's position as the fastest moving memory technology on the market. Configured in 8-bit and 16-bit organizations, the non-volatile chip with in-system programmability also will serve as the memory for AMD's flash storage card which the company plans to release in June. Last month, AMD and flash partner Fujitsu teamed with Intel in evangelizing a new miniature card specification for implementation of flash memory in a small form factor (EN, Jan. 29).

Richard Forte, AMD's group VP for non-volatile memory and programmable logic, asserted that the new technology will give a boost to the flash card market in general. "As a founding member of the Miniature Card Implementers Forum, we expect 20 percent of the flash market by 1999 to be made up of flash cards."

Joining AMD's 5/12V, 5V-only and 3V/5V flash products, which will remain marketable in a variety of desktop applications, the 2.7V-only family is slated to grow to include a half dozen 2-, 4-and 8M parts by mid 3Q96. The 8M Am29LV800 will be available in March for $34.65 in a 48-pin TSOP and $33.85 in a 44-pin SOIC package per 10,000 units ordered. Available at a 10 percent price premium over current 5V-only flash--and using 60 percent less power--the manufacturing cost of the Am29LV800 is expected to drop as AMD moves to a 0.35-micron process technology in 4Q96, according to Walid Maghribi, VP of AMD's non-volatile memory division.

Overall, the flash market, while accounting for about $1.9 billion in sales in 1995, is seen as among the fastest growing technologies in the semiconductor industry. Market analyst company Dataquest, recently acquired by the Gartner Group, projects sales of flash memory will grow to $4 billion in 1998, with market research firm In-Stat posting 1998 sales at an optimistic $8 billion.

The Am29LV800 features low power standby and sleep modes, using less than 1-microamp of current to run either feature.

A read access time as fast as 100 nanoseconds enables operation of high-speed microprocessors, such as the 100MHz Pentium Pro, with zero wait states. The chip is guaranteed for a minimum of 100,000 program/erase cycles.