Taiwanese Macronix International Company has announced that it has introduced the industry's highest performance 1.8V 4-I/O serial multi I/O Serial Flash memory.
Operating at speeds up to 104MHz for each I/O in 4-I/O mode, the new MX25U family 8Mb-64Mb is designed to enable applications not only to shadow code to cache as store and download with the performance exceeding parallel flash memory, and also to support execute-in-place capability with enhanced quad peripheral interface mode to execute the code directly from the flash memory. Macronix points out that one advantage of high performance serial flash, is a lower pin count and PCB saving together with a better throughput compared with parallel flash memory.
The low driving voltage of the MX25U series makes it suitable for mobile phones, DECT phones, Bluetooth, GPS and other portable devices and as well as power consumption concerned embedded applications.
According to F.L. Ni, the vice president of Macronix trend for flash memory in the portable and mobile phone industry is changing from parallel to serial interfaces. In particular, the design of ultra low-cost mobile handsets has made the most use of the low pin count, 4-I/O advantages of serial flash to reduce total system cost.
Macronix MX25U series quad peripheral interface devices are available in industrial temperature range and offered in an eight-contact WSON (6mm x 5mm) or an eight-lead SOP (200 mil) package.
Mass production of the MX25U series will begin in the first quarter of 2010.
