SSD Miniaturization

Micron received the Best of Show Award in the Most Innovative Flash Memory Consumer Application category at last week’s Flash Memory Summit held in Santa Clara.

Of course, scaling of transistors and improvements to the semiconductor manufacturing technology is the name of the game for packing more horsepower into chips or bits into memories – especially in NAND flash. But Micron is also pushing the envelope when it comes to miniaturization of the entire drive.

SSDs are still common in standard laptop 2.5 inch drive formats, but if you really want to hook into the the ultrabook phenomenon engendered by the Apple MacBook Air, there’s no need to drag around extra baggage.

The C400 mSATA is a caseless design with a footprint of only 1.2 by 2 inches. There are many other products in the C400 lineup, but the mSATA package comes in densities of 32, 64, 128 or 256 GB.

The Falsh Memory Summit itself was another one for the “missed opportunities” category as there were many presentations given that sounded worthwhile. Several of these are publicly available online (you just need to give them your email here), and I expect to be commenting on some of these in the coming weeks.

The full press release appears after the break.


August 23, 2012

Micron mSATA Solid State Drives Selected by Flash Memory Summit 2012 as a Best of Show Award Winner

Recognized for Most Innovative Flash Memory Consumer Application

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 23, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Flash Memory Summit 2012 — Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:MU) announced that its mSATA solid state drives (SSDs) have been chosen by the Flash Memory Summit as a Best of Show award winner for 2012 in the category of Innovative Flash Memory Consumer Application. The annual Best of Show Awards is the premier opportunity for industry recognition of innovative products and solutions, and how they are being used in the marketplace.

 Micron’s mSATA SSDs—branded the Micron C400 and the Crucial m4—are designed to address the rapidly emerging ultrathin market that deliver powerful, proven performance for systems where space is at a premium. At just 1.2 x 2 inches, the caseless, lightweight form factor enables slimmer designs while providing the same high performance as full-sized SSDs. These SSDs offer a tiny form factor, but deliver the same great performance as our popular full-size SSDs. They were designed to be a compelling, no-compromise solution for the rapidly emerging Ultrabook™ category. Micron’s mSATA drives can serve as a primary storage in ultrathin laptops or act as a cache to complement the performance of an existing hard drive. With a fast SATA 6Gb/s interface, these mSATA drives deliver on the true capability and promise of Flash technology—ultra fast, reliable, low-power storage in a tiny footprint.

 “Ultrathin systems require immediate responsiveness, reliable portability and long battery life to truly deliver on the advantages of mobile computing,” said Justin Sykes, Micron’s general manager of client SSD solutions. “Our mSATA SSDs make this possible without any compromises— high-performance storage without the constraints of enclosures meant for hard drives. We would like to thank the Flash Memory Summit Awards Committee for recognizing our innovation.”

 Winning products were judged by a panel of industry experts who evaluated each nomination according to the following criteria:
• Distinctiveness of the application, technology, or product
• Central use of flash memory as a solution or innovation
• Technical and business significance to the general marketplace

 “The judges of the Flash Memory Summit Awards Committee had the daunting task of selecting the most Innovative Consumer Application from such a large pool of quality submissions,” said Jay Kramer, Chairman of the Awards Program and President of Network Storage Advisors Inc. “We are proud to select the Micron mSATA Solid State Drive, which brings to market a new standard for lightweight and small form factor packaging while delivering power savings and high performance demanded of storage solution for the emerging Ultrabook market segment.”

 Micron was honored at the Flash Memory Summit Awards evening reception in the Exhibit Hall on Wednesday, August 22.

 For a complete list of all the Flash Memory Summit Best of Show awards winners, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com.

About Micron

 Micron Technology, Inc., is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions. Through its worldwide operations, Micron manufactures and markets a full range of DRAM, NAND and NOR flash memory, as well as other innovative memory technologies, packaging solutions and semiconductor systems for use in leading-edge computing, consumer, networking, embedded and mobile products. Micron’s common stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the MU symbol. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc., visit www.micron.com.

About Flash Memory Summit

 Flash Memory Summit is the only conference dedicated entirely to flash memory and its applications. It is intended for system designers, technology and financial analysts, IT professionals, hardware and software engineers, product marketing and marketing communications specialists, and engineering and marketing managers. It features forums, half-day tutorials, paper and panel sessions, and expert tables. Subjects include a wide range of consumer and data center environments including enterprise storage system applications, consumer mobile products, PCs/servers, product design, caching methods, storage software, new flash related technologies, flash industry market research, flash testing and security. The Summit also includes exhibits of the latest products and product awards. For more information, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com. Twitter: flashmem Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flash-Memory-Summit/72498807894

About Conference ConCepts, Inc.

 Founded in 1994, Conference ConCepts is a full-service professional conference and association management company that provides extensive capabilities in all aspects of technical conference management. Conference ConCepts develops and produces events both on its own, and in partnership with associations, corporations, and publishers. The skill sets of the company’s employees and contractors, representing over 200 cumulative years of experience, enables Conference ConCepts to offer clients a choice of services, ranging from assistance with a single aspect of a conference to the complete development and administration of a full-fledged “turnkey” event. For more information about Conference ConCepts, visit: http://www.confconcepts.com/

 The Flash Memory Summit, Micron, Crucial Logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=14198
 
CONTACT: Micron

         Jacob Rice

         Zeno Group

         jacob.rice@zenogroup.com

         650-315-3042

        

         Conference ConCepts, Inc.

         Melissa Kallos

         melissa@flashmemorysummit.com