These days, who can wait to get their hands on the latest electronics? And why would you wait, either, because they’re good. Really good.
The next-generation products mean you can have what you need in your hands when you need it. You don’t have to check in with your desktop. And you don't have to be tied to your laptop either. NAND is showing up everywhere, and it’s durable, rugged, and ready for a regular day, whether it’s sitting in your car in between stops and meetings or sitting on your kitchen counter with the day’s groceries.
But portability doesn’t stop there. You know that cell phones are quickly becoming the all-in-one mobile device. They’re getting better at capturing pictures, taking video, storing and playing music, and holding more of the information you need your phone to hold. NAND Flash is working here, too, enabling storage capabilities that didn’t seem possible a few years ago.
Maybe you can’t live without your favorite movie always at your fingertips. Guess what? You don’t have to. Maybe you need over 5,000 songs, sitting in your pocket, to keep you company while you navigate on a long-haul run. You can have that, too.
Let’s face it: The NAND Flash market is growing faster than any technology in the history of semiconductors. New products and new market segments are driving Flash growth. From NOR to NAND, from SLC to MLC, and from standard NAND to embedded NAND solutions—exciting opportunities are ahead for the thriving NAND market. And it’s just the beginning.
Here, you’ll find the most up-to-date information on all things NAND. So go ahead—use the NAND Flash-related resources and references on this site to map the future of your designs.
Table of Contents
- What is NAND Flash?
- How NAND Flash Works
- NAND Flash vs. NOR Flash
- MLC vs. SLC Flash
- Designing in NAND Flash
- ONFI – Making the System Designer’s Job Easier
What is NAND Flash
NAND is a nonvolatile solid state memory. Nonvolatile memory has the capability to hold and store data even when the power is turned off. This feature makes NAND an excellent storage solution for many applications such as MP3 players, USB drives, removable storage cards, cell phones, and an endless number of other applications where mobility, power use, speed, and size are key factors.
Functionally, NAND can simply be viewed as a silicon version of a small hard disk drive. NAND is the best memory technology available to provide the necessary cost-per-megabyte and density to become the primary storage device for all systems information, eliminating the need for a separate hard drive in many applications.
Micron’s NAND 101 Webinar
How NAND Flash Works
NAND stores data in a large array of transistors. Each transistor can store one bit of data (note that multi-level cell (MLC) NAND can store two bits of data in each cell.) NAND has gained widespread popularity over traditional NOR Flash memory because it can pack a greater number of storage cells in a given area of silicon. This gives NAND Flash density and cost advantages over other nonvolatile memory. NAND achieves these advantages by sharing some of the common areas of the storage transistor, which creates strings of serially connected transistors (in NOR devices, each transistor stands alone). This serial cell architecture explains the device name: NAND (not AND) is the boolean logic reference to how information is read out of these cells.
NAND Flash vs. NOR Flash
In the simplest form, NAND Flash memory is a sequential access device and is best suited to handle data storage like pictures, music, or data files. NOR Flash is designed to be a random access device and is best suited to code storage and execution. Code storage applications include set-top boxes, personal computers, and cell phones. NAND can be used for some boot-up operations, however. For more detailed information, see
Micron Technical Note: Boot From NAND Using Micron® NAND with Texas Instruments™ Processor
MLC vs. SLC Flash
Traditional, single-level cell (SLC) NAND Flash memory stores one bit of information per memory cell. This basic technology enables faster transfer speeds, lower power consumption, and increased endurance. For designs using mid-range densities, SLC NAND Flash will continue to be a good choice. Multiple-level cell (MLC) NAND, by comparison, stores two to four bits of information per memory cell, effectively doubling the amount of data that can be stored in a similar-size NAND Flash device.
SLC NAND offers high performance and reliability, is supported by all controllers, and requires only 1 bit error correction code (ECC). SLC NAND is for applications like high-performance media cards, hybrid disk drives, solid state drives, and other embedded applications with processors, where it is used for code execution. MLC is a low-cost file storage solution for consumer applications like media players, cell phones, and media cards (USB, SD/MMC, and CF cards) where density is more important than performance. MLC is supported only by controllers that include 4-bit or more ECC.
NAND’s evolution from traditional SLC to low-cost, high-capacity MLC has lowered the cost-per-bit for NAND Flash and opened the way for new applications.
Micron’s MLC NAND Flash Webinar
Designing in NAND Flash
Embedded systems that have traditionally used NOR Flash for nonvolatile memory are moving to NAND Flash because of the power, performance, and cost advantages it offers.
Micron Technology offers an in-depth look at NAND Flash technology, including comparisons of SLC versus MLC, the inherent challenges associated with MLC NAND, data reliability and methods for overcoming common interface design challenges, and actual hardware and software components necessary to enable designers to build complete and functional subsystems.
Micron Technical Note: NAND Flash 101
In recent years, traditional NAND Flash memory has diversified to include various types of managed NAND solutions. Micron has become a major contributor to the evolving NAND landscape and offers a range of NAND Flash products.
- NAND Flash
- e-MMC® Embedded Memory
- RealSSD™ Solid State Drives
- RealSSD™ Embedded USBs
- High-Speed NAND
With such a wide offering of NAND Flash memory, designers now have the flexibility to choose the solution that best meets their nonvolatile, solid state memory requirements. Read the article, "Diversification of NAND Flash Memory," and let Ryan Fisher, Senior NAND Flash Applications Engineer, guide you to the best NAND Flash-based memory solution for your application.
ONFI – Making the System Designer’s Job Easier
Micron and several other NAND Flash suppliers, controller manufacturers, and designers have joined together to form the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) working group. The primary goal of the ONFI working group is to develop open standards for the interface used to communicate with NAND Flash memory—standards that will increase compatibility and interoperability among conforming NAND devices from different vendors. This, in turn, will increase the supply base for standard devices, reduce design time, and speed time to market.
Learn more about ONFI and its ongoing efforts from the ONFI standard site: www.onfi.org
ONFI Webinar