A New Way to Store Program Code—With Gusto
July 13, 2010
By Albert Chen
In spite of the advancements in logic process technology, System-on-Chip (SoC) designers are faced with a limited selection of non-volatile memory (NVM) options to store program code. Embedded flash may not be available in the leading-edge logic technology, or may be prohibitively expensive. Read Only Memory (ROM) is process-scalable and can easily reach the required densities, but suffers from expensive mask costs and long turnaround time (TAT) should a re-design occur. The ideal solution for code storage should be flexible enough to be field-programmable, achieve densities up to 4Mbits, and be logic process-compatible so that it can be embedded. Unfortunately, neither embedded flash nor ROM fit these criteria. As a consequence, SoC designers have had to bite the bullet and use external solutions such as serial flash memory or serial EEPROM, increasing BOM costs.
This paper introduces a new and revolutionary embedded NVM IP based on a silicon-proven technology that bridges the gap between external serial NVM and ROM.