Linear, ATA flash camps duke it out

Electronic News, Sept 2, 1996 by Andrew MacLellan

Mountain View, Calif.--Courting the design community, flash memory competitors M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers and SanDisk have both released products designed to enable flash memory developers to more easily create products.

Linear flash technology advocate M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers has introduced a flash disk suite to enable designers to vary the complexity of their flash memory-based storage systems. Separately, SanDisk, a supporter of the competing ATA-standard, released a software host developer's tool kit for integrating flash storage cards into host platforms.

M-Systems, which recently rolled out its FLite operating system and established a TrueFFS software interface between peripherals and the Intel Miniature Card (EN, Jan. 29) is seeking to provide "basic building blocks" for developers looking to create their own on-board flash disks.

Available with a developer's kit priced at $800, M-Systems' flash disk suite targets high-volume embedded applications and power-sensitive portable systems, combining the company's TrueFFS software core, the LFDC-1016 Linear Flash Disk Controller and a FlashDisk chipset.

The LFDC-1016 is a one-chip controller for ISA-embedded systems but supports the PCMCIA flash translation layer (FTL) when bundled with TrueFFS, according to the company. The chip is claimed to provide full hard disk emulation for up to 32MB of on-board flash with a sustained read speed of 3MB/second, and is compatible with a variety of operating systems, including DOS, Windows, QNX and pSOS.

Available separately for $10, the LFDC-1016 is packaged in a 100-pin PQFP and is shipped with complete schematics for a reference design. The chip supports both 8- and 16-megabit NOR flash devices and eliminates the need for glue logic, according to M-Systems.

The LFDC-1016 chip and TrueFFS software are incorporated with a memory component in a chipset that is available in 1-32MB capacities. The 2MB chipset is priced at less than $40. The Embedded TrueFFS Integrator's Kit (E-TIK) includes one, 4MB PC FlashDisk for the ISA bus and 10 TrueFFS licenses, as well as the data to design in and integrate an on-board flash disk using TrueFFS.

The rollout follows a recent agreement among Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Fujitsu and Sharp to support a common flash memory interface specification (CFI), which primarily addresses issues surrounding the Intel Miniature Card's claims of backward compatibility and interoperability.

The CFI agreement in effect enables the standardization of software drivers and includes a host system software interrogation handshake which contains information such as flash architecture, density and voltage requirements.

Meanwhile, competitor SanDisk has introduced a software host developers' tool kit for the design of embedded or removable industry-standard IDE/ATA storage products into hosts such as cellular phones, digital cameras, GPS systems or medical monitors.

The kit, available now for $2,995, is said to simplify the design of handheld electronics by adding desktop PC-compatible file allocation table (FAT) software for storing and allocating data.