Multimedia card suitable for embedded applications

5th June 2017

Swissbit AG

Alice Matthews

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Manufacturer of flash memory solutions, Swissbit, has announced its latest technology for the industrial market: the embedded multimedia card EM-20. The eMMC combines an industrial controller with reliable multi-level cell (MLC) flash in a BGA153 package making it possible to solder the memory directly onto the printed circuit board of the target application. With capacities from 8-64GB, all typical applications are covered. EM-20 replaces thus far commonly used NAND memory chips, which depend on elaborate operating system resources.

Thanks to its integrated controller, flash management functionality and standardised interface, EM-20 can be easily designed-in to applications and offers a variety of key features. The firmware is designed for use as a streamlined and energy-saving boot medium for medical devices, POS/POI terminals or demanding industrial embedded computing applications. As a further distinctive feature, Swissbit's EM-20 can be optionally operated in reliable / pseudo-SLC mode (pSLC).

pSLC (pseudo Single Level Cell) stores only one bit per MLC cell. For certain applications, the pSLC mode offers important advantages: it is significantly faster than the standard use of multi-level cell flash technology and at the same time it increases the possible P/E cycles (programme/erase cycles) from 3,000-20,000. Under the same conditions, the endurance of the data carriers increases by a factor of 6.7. The user can flexibly configure and choose between pSLC or MLC mode, even separately for different partitions if required.

Industrial temperature range
EM-20 memory cards are based on JEDEC 5.0 - the de facto standard for industrial eMMCs. They are available with capacities of 8, 16, 32, or 64GB and offer the most advanced firmware features such as page-based flash management, wear levelling, read disturb management, data care management and secure data erasure.

The Replay Protected Memory Block (RPMB), a one-time writable partition, makes key-storage for Trusted Execution Environments possible. With data-refresh-functionalities and an industrial operating temperature range from -40 to 85°C, the data carrier is designed for long-term operation under harsh conditions. Swissbit’s eMMC offers highest performance with up to 270MB/s for reading and 160MB/s for writing.