AMDs Spansion Delivers Serial Flash Technology

Spansion, the joint venture of AMD (NYSE: AMD - news) and Fujitsu, has developed new Flash memory technology supporting the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) communication standard, with the goal of reducing costs and simplifying the designs of products ranging from mobile phones to automotive electronics.


Serial flash memory communicates with processors in a different way than traditional parallel flash memory, which inputs or outputs 8, 16, or 32 bits of data simultaneously. Serial flash memory inputs and outputs only one data bit (a "1" or a "0") at a time, enabling less complicated system design.


Simplified Designs


According to Spansion, the SPI standard helps manufacturers reduce the board space in these products by up to 80 percent and requires 75 percent fewer electronic connections than traditional Flash devices.


The latest Spansion FL offering is targeted at an expanding flash-memory market that includes applications for DSL and cable modems, DVD/CD players and recorders, optical and hard disk drives, LCD monitors and digital TVs.


"This is based on our MirrorBit technology, for stronger performance and more efficient storage," John Nation, marketing manager for Spansion, told NewsFactor. "SPI reduces the complexity of board designs for consumer devices by streamlining the number of wires on the board."


Critical Mass for SPI


For low-density designs, 1 and 2 MB Spansion FL products are now available in production volumes. Customers are sampling 4 MB devices as well as 16 MB products, and Spansion plans to extend the portfolio to 8, 32 and 64 MB densities in 2005.


By expanding into the low-density marketplace, Nation said, Spansion is establishing the critical mass necessary to build support for the emerging SPI standard, which is viewed primarily as a high-density, niche-market technology.


Spansion led the flash-memory market in the first half of 2004, according to data released earlier this year by market researcher iSuppli.


Market Growth


That data indicates that flash-memory sales will reach US$16.6 billion in 2004, up from $11.64 billion in 2003. Revenue is projected to grow another 5 percent in 2005 to $17.5 billion.


Spansion is leading the way, with 24.9 percent share of the flash market, and AMD counts flash-memory revenues as key to its growth -- more than half of its revenues come from flash memory sales. But Intel, which also makes NOR flash chips, is close behind with a 23.2 percent market share.


Spansion also announced plans to collaborate with chipset vendors, including Conexant and Genesis Microchip, to implement the SPI interface in microprocessors and ASICs.