Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Agere Systems | Subject: TrueStore CE
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 04 January 2005
Disk drive chipset aims for consumer
devices
Agere Systems has developed a complete chipset for developing small-form-factor disk drives.
Aimed at high-capacity storage in portable consumer electronics, Agere Systems has developed a complete chipset for developing small-form-factor disk drives For the first time, disk drive manufacturers have access to a full set of integrated circuits tailored to the power savings, small size and low cost required to create storage devices for music players, digital cameras, mobile phones, PDAs, notebook PCs and other consumer electronics products
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Agere's TrueStore consumer electronics (CE) chipset includes read-channel, preamplifier, motor controller and hard disk controller solutions the essential silicon required for developing high-performance miniature disk drive form factors from 1.8 down to 0.85in.
Agere is also leveraging these electronics to design highly integrated systems-on-a-chip that support multiple CE-oriented host interfaces in a drive, including multimedia card (MMC), CompactFlash and the new CE-ATA specification.
With read and write speeds topping 350Mbit/s, TrueStore CE solutions support today's current storage capacities of 4.0Gbyte in a typical 1.0in drive, as well as future generations of drives with capacities up to 12Gbyte and beyond.
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In addition, the complete chipset offers the industry's lowest power consumption - approximately 400mW of total power under normal operating conditions - extending battery life vital to handheld consumer electronics designs.
"With low-voltage operation, shock resistance features, small die sizes and speeds that are up to 50% faster than competing solutions, Agere's TrueStore CE chipset and reference firmware represent a complete solution for small-form-factor drive designs", said Joe O'Hare, Vice President of Agere's Storage Division.
"These tiny drives are the key to efficiently storing multimedia content in everything from MP3 players to mobile phones".
"At larger capacities, these drives offer a lower cost-per-gigabyte than competing Flash technologies".
The market for small-form-factor disk drives represents the biggest growth opportunity of any storage segment.
Industry analyst firm TrendFocus expects that 1.8, 1.0 and 0.85in drive shipments will grow from 2.6 million units in 2003 to 100 million units in 2008 for a compound annual growth rate of more than 125%.
Agere is the industry leader in read-channels and SoCs for the fixed and portable consumer electronics markets, and currently has design wins with every manufacturer of 1.0in drives.
Agere is also a contributing member of the MMC Association and the new CE-ATA organisation, developing interface specifications for integrating disk drives in portable consumer devices.
Agere's TrueStore RC1100 CE read-channel delivers the exceptional signal-to-noise ratio performance needed to ensure data integrity during disk drive read and write operations at higher areal densities.
The channel also offers a disk-locked clock feature enabling portable drives to better withstand shock and vibration during operation.
Building on Agere's decade-long expertise in read-channel development, this solution lowers chip-level power consumption while improving overall system power management through a combination of circuit design techniques and the use of low-leakage process technology.
In "deep sleep" mode, the RC1100 consumes up to 70% less power than channels tailored for the 2.5in drive market.
The addition of production-proven disk controller capabilities for miniature drives enables Agere to provide standard-product or reference-code storage SoCs, which integrate read-channel, disk controller, memory and other functions into a single silicon system.
Powerful error correction codes in the controller work together with the read-channel to provide more robust signal processing, helping drive developers boost drive capacity and yield.
Agere's SoC solutions are optimised for low power and cost with flexibility in mind, based on an architecture that includes 3Mbit of embedded data buffer memory.
This unique feature can simplify the total bill-of-materials by eliminating the need for SDRAM, further cutting power consumption and conserving board space.
In addition, the system supports shared "dynamic" memory mapping, allowing drive developers to customise data and instruction memory allocation.
Agere's new TrueStore PA1100 CE preamplifier IC delivers exceptional power management consuming as little as one-third the power of chips supporting 2.5in drives as well as innovative head support.
A disk drive's preamp is closely tied to the performance of the drive's magnetic heads and media, amplifying signals from the head before being sent to storage SoCs or read-channels for processing.
The PA1100 can be used with either giant magnetoresistive (GMR) or tunneling GMR (TGMR) heads.
This preamp also supports next-generation perpendicular recording technology for increasing storage capacities in space-constrained small-form-factor drives.
For the TrueStore MC1100 CE motor controller, Agere has engineered several features enabling improved reliability and shock resistance in portable drives.
Working with Agere's hard disk controller, the motor controller offers advanced emergency retract functions that quickly "park" the drive's heads on sensing physical shock or a loss of power in the drive.
This significantly improves a drive's durability and reduces the potential for data loss.
With the MC1100, drive designers can also eliminate more than two dozen external components, thereby conserving board space and lowering bill-of-materials.
Space savings is a critical requirement in these miniature drive designs, and Agere's TrueStore CE chipset is optimised for low component count and reduced total board space.
Agere offers drive developers a number of package and integration options, from very fine pitch "ultrathin" moulded array packages, to stacked or offset multichip modules, to chip-scale "packageless" bumped die configurations.
The read-channel and hard disk controller solutions are manufactured in 0.13-micron CMOS, with the PA1100 and MC1100 developed in 0.25-micron CMOS technology, contributing to the low cost of the entire solution.
The RC1100 and hard disk controller technology are available now, with sample quantities of the PA1100 and MC1100 expected to ship in the first and second calendar quarters of 2005, respectively.
Pricing for the entire chipset, including firmware and support, begins at US $10 in sample quantities.
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