BusinessWire
February 05, 2007 05:00 AM Pacific Time

QuickLogic Storage Solution Portfolio Runs the Gamut with Addition of NAND Flash Controller

Enables Rapid Adoption of NAND Flash into Portable Systems with Application Processors Lacking NAND Interface

Solution Supports NAND Devices from All Major NAND Flash Vendors
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--QuickLogic® Corporation (NASDAQ:QUIK), the lowest power programmable logic leader, today announced the introduction of a full featured NAND Flash memory controller solution for its ultra-low power PolarPro™ and Eclipse™ II families. Architected with direct input from customers in the portable electronic market, the NAND Flash controller solution is designed to interface with a host of application processors used in portable designs, such as the Marvel® PXA2xx and Analog Devices® Blackfin® DSP processor families. This introduction extends the spectrum of QuickLogic’s storage solution portfolio from various versions of micro hard disk drives and SD Card memory to raw NAND Flash.

“NAND Flash memory provides portable systems with non-volatile, high-capacity storage similar to hard disk drives, but with higher reliability, smaller form factors and lower energy consumption than electromechanical solutions,” says Howard Li, QuickLogic’s Senior Marketing Manager for connectivity solutions. “However, some application processors, such as the PXA2xx and the BF5xx, do not have native support for NAND Flash. QuickLogic’s NAND Flash solution provides the controller functionality in silicon, achieving higher system performance and much lower CPU utilization than software-based alternatives.”

Based on QuickLogic’s patented, ultra-low power programmable technology, the NAND Flash solution is ideal for handheld systems needing to add Flash file storage. The implementation can operate with as little as 20 mA at 1.8V and can provide throughput as fast as 12 Mbytes/sec while reading and 10 Mbytes/sec while writing. The low CPU utilization enables designers of these systems to use less costly speed grades of the application processor and consume less energy, optimizing for both Bill-of-Materials (BOM) cost and battery life.

Key Features

QuickLogic’s NAND Flash solution incorporates key features required to ease the design of portable electronic systems. The solution supports automatic 1-bit error correction, 2-bit error detection, hardware sector buffering, marking of bad blocks, and registers for implementation of wear leveling algorithms.

The NAND Flash solution supports glueless connectivity to the application processor, using a 16- or 32-bit local bus, and handles one x8 Flash device or two x8 devices in parallel. Both large and small block Flash devices from leading flash vendors such as Samsung and Toshiba may be used with the NAND Flash solution. Software drivers are available for both Linux and WinCE.

Price and Availability

QuickLogic’s NAND Flash controller solution can be implemented in PolarPro technology for $2 in high volume.

About QuickLogic

QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ:QUIK) is the leading provider of the lowest power programmable logic solutions for the portable electronics, industrial, communications and military markets. Our latest products, PolarPro™, Eclipse II™ and QuickPCI™ are being used to implement bridge and control solutions in embedded systems requiring Wi-Fi, DVB-H and IDE or CE-ATA-based disk drives. QuickLogic's proprietary ViaLink® technology offers significant benefits for programmable logic, including the lowest power, instant on capability and bulletproof intellectual property security. The company is located at 1277 Orleans Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1138. Web site www.quicklogic.com