WHICH FLASH IS BEST FOR BOOTIN' YOUR NEXT SYSTEM?

摘要

If you are a handset-chip architect, you have more choices than ever when it comes to picking a memory architecture for your next project. Users can go with tried' and-true methods using NOR for system booting or try their hands at designing a new architecture that boots with two of today's hybridized flash chips: Samsung's OneNAND and M-Systems' mDOC (mobile disk on chip). The hybridized model promises to eliminate the pricey NOR device for high-end-system booting and to handle storage, too. In demand-paging architectures, it even promises to reduce the amount of RAM needed, thus reducing overall system power and cost. But opponents say that implementing hybrid architectures is complex and error-prone. Intel, the current leader in the traditional NOR market, claims a system can make only so many "reads" from a NAND before losing data-storage integrity, which can ultimately lead to system failures, especially in demand-paging systems.