Flash Memory Guide Portable Flash memory for computers, digital cameras, mobile phones and other devices
Flash Memory Guide Kingston®, the world’s leading independent manufacturer of memory products, offers a broad range of Flash cards, USB Flash drives and Solid-State Drives (SSD) (collectively called Flash storage devices) that employ Flash memory chips for storage. The purpose of this guide is to explain the various technologies and Flash memory offerings that are available. Note: Due to Flash technology changes, specifications listed in this document are subject to change without notice 1.
Flash Memory Guide 1. Testing each memory cell in the Flash storage device. 2. Identifying all defective cells and taking steps to ensure that no data will be written to or read from a defective cell. 3. Reserving some cells to serve as “spares.” Flash memory cells have a long but finite lifetime. Therefore, some cells are held in reserve to replace any memory cells that may fail over time. 4. Creating a File Allocation Table (FAT) or other directory.
Flash Memory Guide • Solid State: Flash storage devices, as semiconductor storage devices, have no moving parts and thereby are not subject to the mechanical failure issues of hard drives. Their overall data reliability enabled them to dominate the convenience-oriented portable memory products market, operating silently with a zero decibel noise level. • Small Physical Size (or Form Factor): Flash storage devices are designed to be easily transported.
Flash Memory Guide formatting (as described in Section 2), spare blocks are set aside on the Flash storage device for remapping bad sectors over time to extend the useful life and reliability of the Flash storage device. • High-Quality Connectors: Kingston’s Flash storage devices always use highly rated mating connectors to ensure long life and reliable usage of the Flash memory device.
Flash Memory Guide 4.0 Non-Volatile NOR and NAND Flash Technologies Unlike Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Flash memory is non-volatile. Non-volatile memory retains data even without being powered-on. For example, when a computer is turned off, all data that was in the computer’s DRAM memory is lost; however, when a Flash storage device is removed from a digital camera, all data (and pictures) remains saved on the Flash storage device.
Flash Memory Guide 5.1 Die-Stacking Many semiconductor manufacturers use a“die-stacking”technique to increase a Flash memory chip’s capacity. After the semiconductor wafer fabrication process, they cut out the Flash memory silicon “die” and then attach or stack multiple dies together. For example, when a semiconductor manufacturer stacks two 32 gigabit dies together, they form a single 64 gigabit Flash memory chip.
Flash Memory Guide the highest performance, Kingston offers the Elite Pro/Ultimate line of CompactFlash and SD cards, the DataTraveler SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Flash drives and HyperX SSDs. 7.0 Kingston’s Flash Product Lines There are several types of Flash storage devices that are available from Kingston: - USB Flash Drive (DataTraveler®) Secure Digital Cards (SD, SDHC, SDXC, microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC) CompactFlash® Cards eMMC SSD 7.
Flash Memory Guide also accept MMC cards (if the host device is not strictly limited to SD media for SD copy protection management features). However, devices exclusively designed for MMC cards will not support the thicker SD cards. Kingston offers standard SD cards as well as high-performance Ultimate SD cards to capture high-definition video.
Flash Memory Guide INTERFACE PIN COUNT SIZE IN MM eMMC 169 BGA 12 x 16 x 1.2 eMMC 169 BGA 12 x 16 x 1.4 7.5 Solid-State Drives (SSD) A solid-state drive (SSD), is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store data with the intention of providing access in the same manner as a traditional hard disk drive (HDD). As of 2007 most SSDs use non-volitile, NAND-based Flash memory to retain data and contain no moving parts.
Flash Memory Guide 7.6 mSATA (MO300) and Half-Slim (MO297) Solid State Drives Kingston offers integrators and system builders with a small form factor mSATA and Half-Slim SATA SSDs for commercial applications. MO-300 – mSATA or Mini-SATA, was announced by the Serial ATA International Organization in September 2009. Applications include netbooks, ultrabooks and other devices that require a smaller solid-state drive.
Flash Memory Guide offers a USB 3.0 Media Reader for high speed data transfers that are up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0 Media Readers. Kingston also offers convenient portable readers – MobileLite G4 and microSD/SDHC Reader for high-performance data transfers to systems supporting Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and SuperSpeed USB 3.0. 9.0 Electromagnetic Compatibility information to the user 9.1 FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (FCC) STATEMENT: This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules.
Flash Memory Guide Flash Memory Chip Technology Single-Level Cell (SLC) vs. Multi-Level Cell (MLC) /Triple-Level Cell (TLC) In general, Flash storage devices built with Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash, will deliver higher performance than the standard Triple-Level Cell (TLC) NAND Flash or NAND Flash-based cards or DataTraveler.
