
Adoption of xSPI standard by JEDEC opens opportunities for execute-in-place memory
This development, Adesto says, opens additional opportunities for EcoXiP, which is already being deployed across a wide range of application areas. Adesto believes it is the first ventdor to announce compatibility with this standard for high data throughput.
The xSPI standard establishes mechanical, electrical and transactional guidelines for developing high-throughput octal devices, and provides users with assurance of controller compatibility with peripheral devices.
“Divergent products with different solutions to speed communication between the host controller and memory can confuse controller designers as to which direction to follow,” said Gideon Intrater, CTO at Adesto. “This new standard will provide customers, including system developers and controller designers with assured compatibility. This milestone is key to faster and broader deployment of [the] EcoXiP platform and provides the opportunity for new designs to move forward.”
The company continues, “A growing number of products targeting the internet of things such as Wi-Fi and LTE communications modules, wearables, point-of-sale controllers and other embedded devices need more program memory than can be implemented economically on-chip using embedded Flash or SRAM. Together, projections for these devices total production in the hundreds of millions annually. Standalone DRAM devices are also not an attractive solution to be used as program memory in these applications due to standby power requirements and cost. Until now, to hit performance targets, system designers have been required to invest in memory solutions that are expensive, power-hungry and performance limiting.”
Adesto’s EcoXiP product family employs a memory and protocol architecture designed to overcome these challenges. The EcoXiP family is an eXecute-in Place memory that eliminates the need for on-chip embedded flash, while more than doubling processor performance, lowering system power consumption and reducing system cost compared to quad serial peripheral interface (SPI) devices.
The new JEDEC xSPI standard which was developed by a task force comprised of representatives from most NOR Flash device manufacturers and several PC and microcontroller companies, defines its primary applications as computing, automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), embedded systems and mobile systems.
“While many of our peers will target their devices to accelerate systems’ boot speed, EcoXiP not only provides this functionality, but also delivers the lowest power eXecute-in-Place performance,” said Intrater. “This virtually eliminates the need for on-board flash to store firmware.”
Adesto is sampling a 32Mb device now, with a family of densities planned for the future.
Adesto Technologies; www.adestotech.com
