By Nick Flaherty at
www.flaherty.co.uk
Low power memory maker Adesto Technologies has used the
latest JEDEC xSPI standard for a new family of eXecute-in-Place (XiP)
non-volatile memories (NVM).
The xSPI standard establishes mechanical, electrical and
transactional guidelines for developing high-throughput octal devices, such as Adesto’s
EcoXiP product, and provides users with assurance of controller compatibility
with peripheral devices.
“Divergent products with different solutions to speed
communication between the host controller and memory can confuse controller
designers as to which direction to follow,” said Gideon Intrater, CTO at
Adesto. “This new standard will provide customers, including system developers
and controller designers with assured compatibility. This milestone is key to
faster and broader deployment of EcoXiP platform and provides the opportunity
for new designs to move forward.”
A growing number of products targeting the internet of
things such as Wi-Fi and LTE communications modules, wearables, point-of-sale
controllers and other embedded devices need more program memory than what can
be implemented economically on-chip using embedded Flash or SRAM. Together,
projections for these devices total production in the hundreds of millions
annually. Standalone DRAM devices are also not an attractive solution to be
used as program memory in these applications due to standby power requirements
and cost. Until now, to hit performance targets, system designers have been
required to invest in memory solutions that are expensive, power-hungry and
performance limiting.
The EcoXiP family is an eXecute-in Place memory that
eliminates the need for on-chip embedded flash, while more than doubling
processor performance, lowering system power consumption and reducing system
cost compared to quad serial peripheral interface (SPI) devices.
The xSPI standard which was developed by a task
force comprised of representatives from most NOR Flash device manufacturers and
several PC and microcontroller companies, defines its primary applications as
computing, automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), embedded systems and mobile
systems.
“While many of our peers will target their devices to
accelerate systems’ boot speed, EcoXiP not only provides this functionality,
but also delivers the lowest power eXecute-in-Place performance,” said
Intrater. “This virtually eliminates the need for on-board flash to store
firmware.”
“Realtek’s ICs, such as our controllers for the digital home
and Wi-Fi System-on-Chip devices, include a variety of solutions that offer
high performance and ultra-low energy consumption,” said Scott Shen,
Director, Communications Network, at Realtek. “With the adoption of
JEDEC’s new xSPI standard, octal architectures are becoming very appealing to
leverage improved SPI device communication. The combination of the octal xSPI
interface and low power consumption makes Adesto’s EcoXiP an excellent XiP
solution.”
Adesto is sampling a 32Mb device now, with a family of
densities planned for the future.
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