Fastest Octal SPI Flash Interface Available Now From Cadence

Flash memory is being utilized in computers and electronic devices found in Automotive, IoT, Drones, Connected Home, and other emerging applications, demanding ever higher transfer rates and lower latency. Expanding the flash Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) accesses to 8 I/Os (hence Octal SPI) increases the Serial NOR Flash throughput and provide a more efficient solution for emerging applications, while providing backwards compatibility to Quad SPI (QSPI) devices with support for single, dual, quad, or octal I/O interfaces. Stop by our booth at Flash Memory Summit 2016 to learn more.

Figure 1: Octal SPI Controller and PHY block diagram

The Quad and Octal SPI NOR Flash devices are the solution of choice for boot and embedded OS storage in certain IoT and automotive applications. The extremely small package size, low number of pins, eXecute in Place (XIP) capability, and high-performance – all contribute to the growing popularity of those devices.

Octal SPI controller and PHY IP are available from Cadence now, providing support for the fastest access frequency of 200MHz, with DDR Mode and Double Transfer Rate (DTR) Protocol, enabling data transfer rates up to 400 MB/s with reduced read latency.  This is the first Octal SPI IP solution in the market, and includes support for Octal DDR protocol with DQS for Octal SPI Devices. The improved performance will enable Octal SPI designs to utilize continuous mode or XIP with more efficiency, and shorter access time, which accelerates overall system performance and offers the option to eliminate the need for DRAM significantly reducing system cost.

The Octal SPI controller and PHY IP leverages the mature and silicon proven QSPI (Quad SPI) IP, that has been used in multiple designs by many customers. The IP has been validated and verified for interoperability with QSPI devices by Atmel, Micron, Spansion (now Cypress), and Winbond.  In addition, the IP has been validated and verified with Octal SPI devices, AKA XTRMFlash memory, from Micron and Octa SPI devices from Macronix. Interoperability with the new and innovative Micron XTRMFlash memory was announced in Oct. 2015.

You can read more about Cadence Octal SPI IP here

Come see us at Flash Memory Summit 2016