Intel outperforms Samsung in flash technology and cost leadership says Semiconductor Insights

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Oct 6, 2003

Semiconductor Insights (SI), a leader in technical and patent analyses of integrated circuits and structures, has announced the results of its comparative analysis of the latest NOR flash offerings from Intel and Samsung.

SI's discovery of a Samsung NOR flash in a Nokia smart phone back in July, confirmed Samsung's entry into the NOR market, sending shockwaves through the industry. "Our discovery exposed Samsung's NOR activities, and revealed Samsung's critical design win with Nokia", said Derek Nuhn, Chief Operating Officer of Semiconductor Insights.

"Samsung is a formidable player in commodity markets and this news must attract the attention of Intel, the dominant NOR flash player. However, it is clear from SI's preliminary analysis on Intel's leading edge wireless StrataFlash, the L18, that Samsung's technology has a very long way to go to catch Intel."

SI's current analysis focuses on the most significant aspect of NOR flash for handsets--cost per bit. A critical element of the cost per bit equation is total die area of the device, and this is where Intel clearly excels, well surpassing Samsung's latest offering. Intel's total die size for the 128Mb device was measured to be less than 25 mm2, which is 2.7 times smaller than Samsung's comparable offering, both parts manufactured in 0.13 (micro) m technology.

Some of this difference is accounted for by the flash architecture employed by each vendor. Intel's StrataFlash uses a two-bit per cell technology, while Samsung relies on a single bit per cell. "The magnitude of the die size difference between the companies is surprising", said Nuhn. "You would expect a 2X benefit in the storage array area, due to the one-bit versus two-bit per cell technology differences, however, Intel's advantage far exceeds that." Semiconductor Insights will be completing a more extensive technical analysis of each part to directly compare designs and better understand where Samsung lags Intel's flash technology and vice versa.

"The flash memory market continues to heat up, with Nokia remaining a critical design win for flash suppliers. With Samsung's NOR entry, it will be interesting to watch Intel's NOR shipments to Nokia", said Nuhn. "It will also be interesting to see how Samsung responds. They are a talented organization with huge resources--it should be an interesting year."