Silicon Storage Technology claims that it has developed the industry's first 1.8V, high-speed, quad-bit serial flash memory. Featuring an 80MHz operating frequency and a specialised instruction set, the 26WF series of 4bit multiplexed I/O serial-interface devices enables execute-in-place capability. This means that programs can be stored and executed directly from the flash memory without the need for code shadowing on an SRAM. The serial flash is claimed to combine the performance typical of parallel flash memory with the low pin count and space savings of serial flash memory, and with the benefit of reduced power. The memory can be used in mobile handsets, Bluetooth headsets, GPS devices and other small-form-factor, portable electronics. The device has a read-memory-indexing feature that allows the system to jump from one address to another within a 256byte page, within a 64kbyte block or from one block to another using indirect addressing. This reduces the number of clock cycles and dramatically accelerates data access. With sustained burst data rates of up to 320 Mbit/s, the device provides serial flash performance exceeding that of typical parallel flash memory. For additional system speed and performance despite reduced access time, the devices support 8, 16, 32 and 64byte burst-mode operation with wrap-around. Designers can execute code in burst snippets for RAM-less applications or fill cache line buffers for applications where the system architecture uses pipelining to maximise bus bandwidth. Memory-write-performance enhancements include flexible erase capability, to delete small block sectors on the chip in as little as 25ms or the entire flash memory chip in 50ms. The active read current of the devices is 15mA (typical at 80 MHz) and standby current is 10µA (typical).
