TDK Corporation has developed the GBDriver RS4 series of NAND type flash memory controllers with support for 3 Gbps serial ATA. Sales will begin in January 2013.

With an effective access speed of 180 MB/sec, the GBDriver RS4 is an advanced high-speed SATA controller chip. It is fully compatible not only with the latest 1xnm generation and 2x nm generation 16 kB/page SLC (single level cell) and MLC (multi level cell) NAND type flash memory, but also with 8 kB/page and 4 kB/page structures. This allows the customer to select the optimal flash memory for the respective application, providing the flexibility to configure high-speed SATA storage with a capacity ranging from 512 MB to 1 TB.

Along with high-speed control, a read retry function has been added which is essential for ensuring data reliability when using the latest MLC type NAND flash memory. Together with the auto-recovery, data randomizer, and auto-refresh functions of the existing GBDriver series, this design accommodates also future developments in the flash memory format. Data reliability is significantly enhanced by the highly acclaimed GBDriver power interruption tolerance algorithm. For customers requiring an even higher level of data reliability, the Enhanced ECC function makes it possible to expand ECC to 71 bits per 512 byte block.

The sophisticated static wear leveling algorithm averages the write and erase process over all blocks of the memory area, thereby drastically improving the lifespan of installed flash memory. SMART (Self-Monitoring & Analysis Reporting Technology) provides information about the number of times that memory blocks have been erased (programmed), which facilitates quantitative lifespan management of flash storage.

Data security has also been enhanced. In addition to ATA standard security functions, AES 128-bit encryption is also available. This makes it possible to store data in the NAND type flash memory in encrypted form, to guard against the risk of data leaks and tampering. TDK will start releasing a number of NAND modules (SSDs and other products) incorporating the new GBDriver RS4 from April 2013.