Skyera COO Takes a Look at the History of Flash Memory Technology

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Skyera Inc. premiered a new video that provides broad lessons in flash memory technology fundamentals, details the transformational impact that flash memory has made on the data storage industry and addresses issues facing the flash storage industry today.

The video stars Skyera Chief Operating Officer Frankie Roohparvar, a flash industry legend who holds almost 500 patents related to non-volatile memory, including ones covering NAND flash device physics and cell structure to system level software and flash management. In what effectively amounts to a master class in flash memory, Roohparvar traces the history of the technology, covers the distinction between NOR and NAND flash, and shares how NAND flash almost died in the late 1990s when the industry couldn't find an application for the technology.

Other highlights of the 20-minute video include:

• An overview of the basic operation of NAND flash memory
• Understanding the limitations of flash memory that storage system builders need to recognize and how to compensate for those issues at the system level
• Why array vendors that lack in-depth technical understanding and engineering expertise who can't optimize flash characteristics are forced to pay more for enterprise MLC flash, raising prices for end-user customers even though they are using the same commodity MLC
• How to resolve the quandary of leveraging the cost and density benefits of the latest generation of sub-20nm flash geometries while overcoming the corresponding reductions in performance and durability
• How the massive density of flash-based arrays can put the brakes on data center sprawl and power consumption

"They say that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, so to ensure that those in the flash industry have a full understanding of where the technology has been, Skyera is offering up this in-depth overview of the technology," said Roohparvar. "It is my hope that this video will serve as a way for technologists to not feel the need to so much re-invent the wheel but re-purpose it instead.

"We've done just that.. By taking the same commodity MLC flash that is used in laptop computers, tablets and smart phones and then optimizing the physics of the flash chips to build a complete system stack to transform the performance, retention and durability characteristics for enterprise use cases, we're providing a truly disruptive storage technology that not only transforms existing applications and destroys conventions about enterprise storage but opens up new application segments that were never before possible given the cost and performance restrictions on deploying petabytes of high IOPS storage for use cases such as big data analytics."

Those interested in learning more about the history and future of this transformative technology can watch the free flash memory fundamentals video on the Skyera website at http://www.skyera.com/resources/videos/.

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About Skyera
Skyera Inc. is a disruptive provider of enterprise solid-state storage systems designed to enable a large class of applications with extraordinarily high performance, exceptionally lower power consumption and cost effectiveness relative to existing enterprise storage systems. Founded by the executives who previously developed the world's most-advanced flash memory controller, Skyera is backed by key technology and financial partnerships designed to position it at the forefront of the hyper growth in the solid-state storage sector. The company was chosen by Flash Memory Summit as a Best of Show award winner for 2012 in the category of Most Innovative Flash Memory Enterprise Business Application. For more information about the company, visit skyera.com.

CONTACT:
Mark Smith
818-884-8282
[email protected]

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SOURCE Skyera Inc.