New Swissbit SD and Micro SD Memory Cards in pSLC Technology

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Swissbit presents its new S-46 and S-46u series SD and Micro SD memory cards for applications demanding high endurance and performance. Both products combine the market’s latest MLC flash components with a page based firmware translation layer (FTL) and a single bit per cell storage mode. This results in highest random performance and an endurance that exceeds that of industry standard SD memory cards considerably.

The Swissbit S-46 SD memory cards with capacity from 2 GB to 64 GB and S-46u Micro SD memory cards from 2 GB up to 16 GB, work in a storage mode where only a single bit is used per MLC cell. This pSLC mode can be operated much faster than standard MLC mode and increases the permitted program-erase (PE) cycles of MLC from the specified 3k to 20k. Under equal conditions this increases the endurance by a factor of 6.7 at doubled bit cost. In addition the sub-page based FTL allows the firmware to reduce the write amplification to very low values especially for random writes. Compared to standard industrial SD memory cards the resulting endurance can be up to 600 times greater. The S-46/S-46u cards comply with UHS-I bus mode, up to speed class 10 and offer a sequential data rate close to 50 MB/s and a blazing random write data rate of up to 1400 IOPS.

The new Swissbit products are equipped with the proven read disturb management (RDM) alongside an autonomous, performance-neutral background “auto refresh” process. This type of data care management extends the data reliability especially in read intensive applications. Thanks to the sub-page based management the busy time is kept below the specified limit under all conditions, allowing a high sustained IOPS rate and guaranteeing compatibility with the most widespread industrial and networking SD applications.

By using pSLC mode, the protection against data loss during a sudden power fail had even been improved.

The supporting Swissbit life time monitor (SLTM) offers highly detailed status information about the cards and provides a valuable prediction of the expected lifetime allowing for scheduled maintenance.

Samples will be available beginning Q4 2016.

About Swissbit AG

Swissbit is the largest independent manufacturer of embedded memory and flash storage solutions in Europe. The company was founded in 2001 through a management buy-out of Siemens AG, and has offices in Switzerland, Germany, US, Japan and Taiwan. Its main manufacturing plant in Berlin produces industrial strength flash memory products, memory cards with safety functions and DRAM modules for embedded systems. The Swissbit Flash range includes SSDs with SATA interface as mSATA, Slim SATA, CFast™, M.2 and 2.5”, CompactFlash, USB flash drives, SD and micro SD memory cards. Swissbit offers products with long-term availability, high reliability and durability and custom optimization for demanding applications in the industrial, automotive and telecommunications sectors. With its secure storage solutions, Swissbit addresses the increasing security requirements demanded by industrial, government, defense, medical, telecommunications, machine-to-machine communication and finance industry segments. All Swissbit products meet the highest quality standards and the RoHS and REACH directives.