Selecting the right Nonvolatile Memory IP: Applications and Alternatives

By Craig Zajac, Virage Logic
Embedded.com (05/24/10, 06:45:00 PM EDT)

New applications and use models are showing up every day for embedded nonvolatile memory and just as rapidly, new technologies and offerings are becoming available to service those needs. With the breadth of solutions available in the market today, it can become overwhelming for system designers to identify which option is best suited for their given needs.

Application Space Overview. Before starting down the path of evaluating the various options, it is critical to understand real requirements and use model of nonvolatile memory in the system. The two primary features of embedded nonvolatile memory are bit count and endurance cycles.

The endurance cycle specification defines the number of times the memory can be written / re-written. Bit count, also specified in bytes, is simply the amount of data that can be stored in a given block.

Other parameters such as supply voltage, power consumption, etc. are critical to some applications, but are generally secondary to bit count and endurance when looking at the entire landscape.

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