Atmel Targets Low Power Designs With “World’s First” 1.8V 8-Megabit Serial Flash

Atmel Corporation announced the production availability of its new AT25DF081, the industry’s first 8-megabit Serial Flash device capable of operating at 1.8-volts. With a low-voltage operating range of 1.65V to 1.95V, the AT25DF081 operates at the same voltage range as many current and upcoming sub-90nm ASICs and processors/controllers which allows system designers to finally create applications that can utilize a single supply voltage for all components in the system while also saving a significant amount of cost. Unlike devices that are screened to operate at lower voltages and subsequently de-rated, the AT25DF081 was designed specifically to operate at 1.8 volts, enabling the device to retain the same high levels of performance as its 3-volt counterpart.

Atmel developed the AT25DF081 based on direct, specific needs from its customers who use the devices to store both program code and data in battery-powered, portable consumer products such as personal media players (PMPs) and smartphones. The AT25DF081 addresses the key, main concerns when choosing to use Serial Flash for portable designs. First and foremost, because the AT25DF081 is used as a boot and code shadowing Flash memory, read performance from the Serial Flash is critical in order to keep the applications’ power-up boot time as short as possible to appease the instant-on expectations of consumers. The 66MHz operation of the AT25DF081 addresses this concern and can enable an application to shadow the entire contents of the memory in under a very short 130 milliseconds.

The 1.8-volt capability of the AT25DF081 solves the additional, common issues that plague any portable design. By having a complete system operate at a unified 1.8 volts, system designs can be fully optimized to provide the lowest power consumption and longest battery life possible. Precious board space, weight, and system cost can also be significantly reduced by simplifying the embedded power-supply circuitry and eliminating the need for an additional LDO (low dropout regulator) and associated passive components that would otherwise be necessary for a 3-volt Serial Flash memory. In addition, since the AT25DF081 can operate at the same voltage as the ASIC or processor/controller, there is no need for level shifters on control and data lines, resulting in further savings.

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