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Storage


HDDs
Flash Card
Optical Drive

HDDs (IDE/P-ATA and CE-ATA)

Introduction

As Hard Disk Drive (HDD) capacities increase and price points decline, micro disk drive technology continues to be used in applications that require large amounts of storage. In fact, market segments beyond the PC are beginning to look at HDDs as the storage medium of choice.

Portable electronics such as MP3 players were the first to adapt HDD technology. One of the best examples is the Apple® iPod®; it has pioneered a new category of consumer equipment. Consumers now want to enjoy digital music, and increasingly would like the ability to view video and TV content, away from their homes. Consistent with any emerging market, a range of Portable Media Players (PMPs) have appeared, offering different capacities, user interfaces and methodologies for downloading content.

QuickLogic HDD storage solutions allow the host processor in a portable device to directly connect to a micro hard disk drive through the IDE/P-ATA, as well as the CE-ATA interface. QuickLogic is also a member of the CE-ATA Organization that defines and promotes CE-ATA technology, a standard interface for micro hard disk drives with low pin count, low voltage, power efficiency, cost effectiveness and integration efficiency.

highlights

IDE/P-ATA Host Controller supports:

  • All 1” and 1.8” IDE/P-ATA HDDs
  • Data throughput of up to 33 MByte/sec with UDMA
  • Lower processor overhead for ATA timing and polling operation

IDE/P-ATA Solution

CE-ATA Host Controller supports:

  • 4-bit and 8-bit CE-ATA HDDs
  • CE-ATA 1.1 compliant peripheral interface at speeds up to 52 MHz
  • Hardware implementation for CMD-60 and CMD-61 to lower host processor overhead

CE-ATA Solution

Applications

  • Personal Media Players
  • Portable Navigation Devices/Ultra Mobile PCs/UMDs
  • Digital Still Cameras/Camcorders

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Flash Cards: Secure Digital (SD) / MultimediaCard (MMC) / Compact Flash (CF) / Memory Stick (MS) / NAND Flash / Managed NAND

Introduction

Flash memory has become the non-volatile memory of choice in portable applications due to the huge decreases in cost per megabyte and increased capacities available. Today, a significant number of smartphones, personal media players, portable navigation devices and portable industrial devices use flash memory for storage of audio, video, maps, images and data.

The numerous types of flash memory available include form factor storage cards and different flavors of NAND flash devices directly mounted on the board. Removable flash memory cards represent the largest number of applications for Flash memory. Various flavors are already available in the market including SD/SDHC, MMC, CF, and Memory Stick. NAND flash devices directly mounted on the board include Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND and Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash. Managed NAND is the newest form of flash memory available, consisting of MLC NAND flash and a memory controller. The addition of a memory controller serves to handle error detection and correction, offloading these cycle intensive tasks from the processor - one of the top challenges associated with using MLC NAND. Managed NAND is a high-speed, high-capacity, low-cost device that comes in a low-profile BGA package that supports either MMC or SD Card interfaces.

QuickLogic flash memory solutions include solutions for removable storage as well as NAND flash devices mounted directly on the board, making it the most comprehensive and flexible memory interface solution in the market today. QuickLogic’s solutions provide connectivity and control of these different memory options as well support booting from them, eliminating the need for NOR flash in portable systems.

Highlights

Secure Digital (SD) Card Host Controller supports

  • Secure Digital 2.0 standard with support for Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC)
  • 1-bit and 4-bit operation at speeds of up to 52 MHz

Multimedia Card (MMC) Controller supports

  • MMC 4.1 standard for MMC and high capacity SIM card
  • 1-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit operation with speeds up to 52 MHz

SD/MMC Solution

Compact Flash (CF) Host Controller supports

  • 8-bit and 16-bit Compact Flash interface
  • Memory and I/O modes for CF card and peripherals
  • True IDE mode for CF micro hard drives

Compact Flash Solution

Memory Stick (MS) Controller supports

  • Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro standards
  • Theoretical maximum data transfer rate of 480 Mbps
  • 4-bit, 8-bit and serial interface widths

Memory Stick Solution

NAND Flash Controller supports

  • Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND flash with 2-bit hardware ECC/EDC
  • Hardware support for wear leveling and bad block management

NAND Flash Controller Solution

Managed NAND Controller with Boot Capability supports

  • Elimination of the need for NOR Flash in the system
  • Booting from any SD/MMC-based Managed NAND device with support for SDHC devices of 4 GBytes and above
  • SD/MMC controller is SD 2.0 compliant with support for SDHC devices for Managed NAND densities of 4 GBytes and above
  • Supports the latest eMMC standard
  • Supports multiple SD/SDIO/MMC devices or cards on the same bus

Managed NAND Solution

Applications

  • Personal Media Players
  • Portable Navigation Devices
  • Smartphones
  • Enterprise PDAs
  • Portable Scanners
  • ePOS
  • Wireless Data Cards
  • Ultra Mobile PCs/UMDs
  • Digital Still Cameras/Camcorders

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Optical Drives (ATAPI)

Introduction

The growth of the disk storage market, which includes CD-ROM drives and DVD ROM drives, has been driven over the last two decades by the PC and laptop revolution. Over the next decade, it is expected to grow even further fueled by the multimedia revolution in personal media players and portable gaming systems.

There is a multitude of low power application processors designed for these portable applications. However, many of them do not provide a native interface to these optical drives.

QuickLogic’s optical drive solution provides the control and interface functionality for easy adoption in these devices, providing seamless connectivity to DVD ROM drives. Additionally, it supports dual IDE/P-ATA-based devices so that simultaneous support one DVD ROM and one HDD.

Highlights

Optical Drive Controller (ATAPI) supports

  • CD and DVD ROM connectivity (ATAPI)
  • Enhanced support for simultaneous DVD ROM and hard disk drives
  • Throughput of greater than 13 MByte/sec
  • Off-loading the application processor from managing the overhead of ATA timing and polling operations

Optical Drive Solution

Applications

  • Personal Media Players
  • Camcorders
  • Portable Video Game Consoles

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