Sun and Samsung Produce Ultra-endurance Flash Memory

In a combined effort, Samsung and Sun Microsystems have developed an "ultra-endurance", "server-grade" single-level cell (SLC) Nand flash memory device. According to the official press release, this new SLC flash memory offers a five-fold increase in data write-and-erase cycles over previous SLC memory devices. It's been designed specifically with solid state drives (SSDs) in mind and will extend the life-cycle of "any high-transaction data processing server".In addition, the new SLC memory is expected to provide the super-high endurance in mission-critical computing; apparently the highest endurance ever. The press release also made reference to a one hundredfold increase over conventional hard drives in terms of the number of data transfers per watt, which will allow users some relief as far as their power and cooling budgets are concerned.Single layer cell memory has been around for a long time, and has faced stiff competition from multi-layer cell flash drives, which are considered to be the next generation for flash drives. Multi-layer flash memory has several advantages over its SLC predecessor. MLC memory offers users twice the capacity at the same size and roughly the same price. In fact, MLC flash memory has taken over a large proportion of the flash memory market, but in spite of its 'newness' and novelty value and despite its apparent cost-efficiency, MLC flash memory does have some disadvantages.Their larger capacity has resulted in decreased levels of performance. They have slower write and erase speeds, and according to Getusb.info, they have a reduced write/erase cycling endurance. MLC flash also has a lower life expectancy; 10,000 cycles vs. 100,000 cycles for SLC flash.These disadvantages explain why Samsung and Sun decided to focus their energies in developing and enhancing SLC instead of MLC flash memory. According to Jim Elliott, vice-president of memory marketing at Samsung Semiconductor Inc., the future of memory entails an "endurance up, power down" approach, and server-grade SLC flash is ideally situated to deliver just that.Michael Cornwell, lead technologist for flash memory at Sun Microsystems, says that server-grade SLC Nand flash is necessary to accelerate customer applications and that the new SLC flash devices developed with Samsung have the potential to revolutionise the hardware marketplace. Applications in which the new SLC flash memory devices are likely to be adopted include video streaming, high-transaction data processing, search engine operations and other high-speed server functions.Jim Elliott believes that Samsung's partnership with Sun will give IT managers the best in high-density, high-endurance memory design with far more efficient energy consumption than has been seen before.Recommended sites:http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2221914/sun-samsung-team-flash-me...http://www.getusb.info/so-what-is-slc-flash-memory-anyway/