By Pritesh Mandaliya, Cypress Semiconductor
Many IoT applications – including connected cars, factory automation, smart city, connected health, and wearables – require nonvolatile memory to store data and code. Traditionally, embedded applications have used external Flash memory for this purpose.
However, as modern semiconductor technology faces challenges in scaling and cost as it moves to smaller geometries, it has become increasingly difficult to embed Flash memory within the host SoC. Therefore, future MCU or SoC designs are targeting system-in-package (SiP) or the use of external Flash. This trend does not address the needs of IoT applications like wearables because of their small form factor, strict cost constraints, and low-power related requirements.
To address these issues, Flash memory manufacturers are developing architectures that optimize size and power consumption. At the same time, they are introducing important new capabilities that support greater endurance, reliability, security, and safety.