Link_A_Media Devices Announces the Availability of its Customizable Controller Platform for Enterprise, Client, Hybrid and Consumer SSD Applications

Jun. 27, 2011  — Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD), a leader in the development of custom System on a Chip (SoC) solutions for the data storage market, announces the availability of its 6G SATA and PCIe, FlashLINK™2 SSD controller technology platform. Using the FlashLINK2 platform, LAMD can develop and ship samples of a new, custom SSD controller product, complete with NAND management and host interface firmware, in as little as five months.

The FlashLINK 2 is a highly scalable platform, capable of supporting a broad spectrum of SSD applications ranging from 2 Channels for Hybrid Hard Disk Drive and Consumer products to 16 Channels for the enterprise segment. It combines a highly robust data recovery sub-systems, based on LAMD’s second generation proprietary Adaptive DSP Error Recovery™ technology, with a data transport sub-system and user-customizable host interface block to deliver leading-edge Read/Write transfer speeds and throughput (IOPS), as specified below.

The Adaptive DSP Error RecoveryTM is specifically designed to increase the endurance of current and future generation MLC NAND devices to meet the lifetime requirements of enterprise-class usage while maintaining high performance throughout the drive’s life. It achieves these key system objectives through the use of proprietary adaptive signal estimation methods and powerful on-the-fly error correction technology.

The FlashLINK 2 platform comes with complete, qualified NAND management and host interface firmware to support all NAND Flash supplier interfaces, along with hardware design that uses patented micro architectures for error-correction decoder and sophisticated power management to deliver low power consumption.

According to Gartner Inc.’s latest research*, the enterprise SSD market will grow from 1.3M units shipped in 2010 to over 11.6M units in 2015, a CAGR of 54%. MLC flash based enterprise SSDs are predicted to be the fastest growing segment within this market.

“The endurance, performance and data integrity requirements for MLC flash based enterprise controllers are very stringent,” said Joseph Unsworth, Research Director for NAND & SSD at Gartner. “MLC flash technology is an imperative for driving enterprise SSD adoption through lower prices and companies that can provide solutions that are easy to integrate and have compelling benefits and cost structure will be increasingly attractive.”

“We are very pleased to announce the availability of our proven FlashLINK 2 SSD controller platform, which features our endurance enhancing technologies to enable the widespread adoption of next generation MLC Flash in data storage devices,” said Dr. Hemant Thapar, CEO, Link_A_Media Devices. “Our versatile platform is designed to enable our customers to suitably add their own hardware or firmware blocks to create custom controller products and deliver differentiated NAND-based system-level storage solutions. LAMD’s FlashLINK2 platform is significant because it enables manufactures to get to market quickly with a reliable, MLC flash based SSD.”

The FlashLINK 2 SSD technology platform is comprised of customizable hardware intellectual property (IP) blocks and firmware modules, implementing a complete 6Gbps end-to-end NAND Flash controller. Unique FlashLINK2 platform technology dramatically improves the endurance, reliability, cost and performance of NAND Flash storage for all applications (enterprise, client (PC, notebook) and embedded mobile storage). LAMD is currently shipping MLC enterprise level products to a major OEM drive manufacturer.

Key Features

•   2 to 16 NAND channels, up to 4 CE per channel
• Support for 3xnm and 2xnm NAND Flash from all major Flash vendors
• Legacy, ONFi and Toggle Mode NAND interfaces
• PCIe 2 and SATA 6G host interface options
• Proprietary endurance improving Adaptive DSP Error Recovery
• End-to-end user data path protection
• Strong BCH ECC capability with area/power efficient decoder architecture
• SuperCap protection
• Enterprise-class proven firmware platform for NAND management and data transport operations
• Performance throttling options to guarantee product life
• Comprehensive defects management and error recovery
• SMART support
• Microsoft® Windows® 7 TRIM support

Operations	Performance
Sequential read	540MB/s
Sequential write	510MB/s
Random Read IOPS(SLC)	70K
Random Read IOPS(MLC)	65K
Sustained Random Write IOPS SLC (typical)	65K
Sustained Random Write IOPS MLC (typical)	40K

About Link_A_Media Devices

Link_A_Media Devices is a leader in the development of semiconductor SoC solutions for the data storage market. Its mixed signal processing and iterative data recovery technologies enable hard disk drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) OEMs to increase storage density and reduce manufacturing costs. These advantages enable Link_A_Media Devices’ customers to continue to meet the growing demand for high-performance and low-cost data storage in consumer, computing and enterprise storage networking applications. For more information, visit www.link-a-media.com.