Breakthrough in high density Serial Flash Memory

HSINCHU, Taiwan, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Macronix International Co., Ltd. (TSE: 2337), the number one Serial Flash supplier, today continues it's leadership and innovation in the Serial Flash market by announcing the world's first 256-megabit(Mbit) Serial Flash product. This new 256Mbit product, MX25L25635E, will allow system designers and manufacturers to offer greater functionality and performance in their products. Based on an innovative 32-bit addressing scheme, Macronix has created a simple way to extend the Serial Flash density beyond 128Mbit while supporting the existing 24-bit addressing for backward compatibility. The new 256Mbit Serial Flash provides a small form factor, low pin count, and reduces the overall system cost in many of today's applications, like networking, set-top box, and servers.

(Photo: http://www.prnasia.com/sa/2009/10/28/20091028216197.html )

"Macronix has enhanced its leadership position in Serial Flash by being the first company to offer the highest density 256Mbit product in the market," said Alan Niebel, CEO and founder of Web-Feet Research. "The Serial Flash market is the fastest growing NOR Flash segment increasing from $645M in 2009 and with the addition of the 256Mbit Serial part it should reach $2,036M by 2014."

Serial Flash products are currently based on a 24-bit addressing protocol which caps the maximum density at 128Mbit. However, as manufacturers introduce complex and feature rich products, their memory requirements are changing and system designers are looking for densities greater than 128Mbit to store their code and/or applications. With the current architecture there is no viable solution to this issue.

Macronix is the first Serial Flash company to break through the 128Mbit density barrier. The 256Mbit Serial Flash uses a combination of 24-bit and 32-bit addressing to maintain backward compatibility. The new 256Mbit part powers up like a 128Mbit device in 24-bit mode and a user can switch to 32-bit addressing as needed. Using this method, a system designer will not have to completely rewrite the software.

"Many of the newer markets including VoIP network processors require high density Flash memory" said Shahin Rohani, Director of Applications & Customer Solutions at TranSwitch Corporation. "Recognizing Macronix as a leader in Serial Flash and the first company to introduce the highest density 256Mbit Serial Flash, we are looking forward to using these devices in our upcoming designs."

The Macronix 256Mbit Serial Flash product is targeted for feature rich applications that require higher storage space and performance, while maintaining the low pin count and overall system cost. Some of these applications are networking systems, WiMax, set-top box, servers, high-end projectors, Digital TVs and similar products. Another key market is FPGAs, where a large amount of code needs to be downloaded from Flash.

The new 256Mbit Serial Flash not only enhances the density, but also offers high performance through Macronix Serial Multi-I/O (MXSMIO(TM)). The MX25L25635E supports single, dual, and quad I/O capability for higher throughput while maintaining the same package and pin numbers of traditional Serial Flash. This fast performance makes the 256Mbit device ideal for code and user data storage, and is capable of code XIP (execute-in-place) directly from Flash.

The MX25L25635E, 256Mbit Multi I/O Serial Flash is sampling in October and mass production is scheduled for December 2009. The advanced datasheet is available online at www.macronix.com .

    Some of the MX25L25635E features are high-lighted below:

    Features
    -- 256Mbit with Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) compliance
    -- 24-bit mode and 32-bit mode addressing
    -- 4 KB sectors, and 32 KB / 64 KB block for flexible software
       architecture
    -- 256-bytes per page programming, with single-byte programming
       capability
    -- 2.7 - 3.6 volt operating voltage range
    -- Secured 4 Kbit OTP
    -- Support common serial flash interface - DMC(Discoverable Memory
       Capabilities)
    -- Industrial temperature grade

    Performance

           Single I/O               Dual I/O                 Quad I/O
            80 Mbps                 140 Mbps                 280 Mbps

    -- Programming time: 1.4mS (typical) for a 256-byte page
    -- Erase time:
       - 60mS (typical) for 4K-byte sector
       - 0.5S (typical) for 32K-byte sector
       - 0.7S (typical) for 64K-byte block.

    Packages
    -- Industry standard 16-pin SOIC package
    -- RoHS (lead-free) compliant

About Macronix International Co., Ltd.

Founded in 1989, Macronix International Co., Ltd. (TSE: 2337.TT) is a leading provider of innovative Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) solutions. Macronix is the largest worldwide manufacturer of ROM products, and also provides a wide range of Parallel and Serial NOR Flash products across various densities. These products are used in vast range of consumer, computing, communications & networking, and industrial applications.

    For more information, please visit the Company web site at
www.macronix.com .

    Media Contacts:

    Headquarters(Taiwan)
     Michelle Chang
     Department Manager
     Corporate Communication Office
     Macronix International Co., LTD.
     TEL:   +886-3-578-6688 ext. 71233
     FAX:   +886-3-666-3169
     Email: michellechang@mxic.com.tw

    Americas
     Salman Rashid
     Senior Marketing Director
     Macronix America, Inc.
     TEL: +1-408-941-6264
     FAX: +1-408-893-1777
     Email: salmanrashid@macronix.com

    Japan
     Nobufumi Fujii
     Marketing Senior Manager
     Japan Branch
     Macronix Asia Limited
     TEL:   +81-44-246-9100
     FAX:   +81-44-246-9105
     Email: fujii@mxic.co.jp

    Europe
     Jeff Doong
     Product Marketing Manager
     Macronix Europe, N.V.
     TEL: +32-2-456-80-20 ext. 23
     FAX: +32-2-456-80-21
     Email: jeffdoong@mxic.com.tw

SOURCE Macronix International Co., Ltd.

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