Micron Technology on Thursday introduced a portfolio of high-capacity flash memory products that integrate the error management techniques in the same NAND package. Micron believes that the new technology will lengthen the life of NAND for years to come. The new flash memory chips have enhancements for enterprise-oriented applications and will therefore enable new classes of devices.

As the industry progresses past 20nm, flash management gets more challenging because the amount of bit errors increases dramatically, impacting NAND performance and reliability. By tightly coupling the error management with the NAND devices in a single package, Micron's customers can continue to take advantage of the highest capacity and lowest cost-per-bit flash memory solution. Micron's ClearNAND products are first designed using its 25nm multi-level cell (MLC) process, and are available in two versions: Standard and Enhanced.

Standard ClearNAND products come in 8GB to 32GB packages, and are intended to remove the error correction code (ECC) burden from the host processor with minimal protocol changes compared to raw NAND. The Standard ClearNAND portfolio is targeted for portable media players and other consumer electronic devices.

Enhanced ClearNAND products, in addition to removing the ECC burden from the host processor, also provide new enterprise specific features to enable high-capacity designs, delivering improved performance and reliability. Capacities are available in 16GB to 64GB packages. The Enhanced ClearNAND products are targeted at enterprise and computing applications, and allows 25nm MLC NAND to be used in these applications for the first time.

"While the advantages in NAND scaling are evident, so are the challenges with the technology becoming increasingly more difficult to manage. Micron's ClearNAND products remove this management burden for our customers and extend the life of this all-important technology," said Glen Hawk, vice president of Micron's NAND solutions group.

Both Micron Standard ClearNAND and Enhanced ClearNAND products are available now.

"As the industry continues to reduce costs by moving to smaller and smaller geometries, the challenge has been to maintain equivalent system performance and endurance as the previous process generation. With its ClearNAND portfolio, Micron has developed a solution that overcomes these challenges, enabling customers to utilize the most advanced NAND technology in even the most demanding applications," said Greg Wong, founder and principal analyst at Forward Insights.

Tags: Micron, NAND, Flash, ClearNAND