Serial flash memory devices expanded in EMEA

11th October 2016

Alice Matthews

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Fabless provider of non-volatile memory and advanced 32-bit MCU solutions headquartered in Beijing, China, GigaDevice Semiconductor, has expanded its sales and marketing activities in the EMEA region, where it has several reps and distributors and is set to open its European headquarter soon.

GigaDevice will exhibit its full range of memory and advanced MCU product lines at the upcoming electronica (8^th to 11^th November 2016) in Munich, Germany (Hall A3, Booth 577).

GigaDevice provides high-speed/low-power serial flash memory devices, including SPI NOR and SPI NAND, as well as a range of 32-bit ARM Cortex MCU product lines targeting user segments such as embedded controller and AEC-Q100-qualified automotive applications. The company, founded in 2005, is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It currently operates five R&D centres in China and the U.S., plus six global sales offices in China, Japan, Korea, the U.S. and Europe. GigaDevice commands a growing worldwide market share of 12% in serial NOR flash devices. Annual revenue growth has surpassed the $180m mark. More than 55% of its work force of 350+ is engaged in high-level research and development focusing on NVM and MCU solutions.

The main part of the GigaDevice product portfolio is SPI NOR Flash, currently at the 65nm (2-512Mb) and 90nm (512Kb-16Mb) nodes, and SPI NAND Flash at the 2X node (1Gb-8Gb). All are available for supply voltages of 3, 2.5 and 1.8V. Beginning in 2017, GigaDevice's SPI NOR technology will advance to 45nm, and SPI NAND to the 3Xnm node. In regards to serial NAND Flash, the GigaDevice roadmap offers the smallest form-factor package for the full voltage range of 2.7-3.6V, operating at 120MHz for fast reading with 30pF load. Quad data transfer is ensured up to 480Mb/s. Internal data move is done per page with on-chip ECC. A minimum of 50,000 fast programme/erase cycles and a 10-year data retention are guaranteed.

Currently, GigaDevice is actively involved in the ongoing JEDEC Task Group discussions about the proposed Octal xSPI standard. Octal SPI would enable a performance of up to 400MB/s compared to the existing Quad SPI 60MB/s read throughput. Additionally, GigaDevice is also focusing on feature improvements for RPMC (replay protect monotonic counter) technology as defined by Intel for PC platforms.

Focusing on the growing performance, power and cost requirements in the embedded markets, GigaDevice is advancing its GD32 Cortex M3 Series F4/F0/F7 based solutions, configured for various bus systems and offered in eight different package options, including starter kits and full-featured evaluation boards. The initial launch of the Cortex M4F processor, comprising of 11 parts (including optional FPU), supports 200MHz and memory densities from 512KB to 3,072KB (Flash) and 256KB/512KB (SRAM). It is available in the LQFP100 and 144, or BGA176.