Another New Name in SSD: Proton Digital Systems

Launched last year and based in San Jose, CA, Proton Digital Systems, Inc. is another new name in a flash industry already full of companies. There are more than one hundred SSD manufacturers in the world, not including four NAND chip makers and several other ones in controllers and flash cache software.

There is also currently another storage company, in Miami, FL, without
any relation but with a similar name, Proton Data Security, manufacturer
of degaussers.

What else can add Proton, until recently in stealth mode? It is entering
into a new patented ‘Flash Read Channel’ supposed to increase NAND
flash longevity and retention through the use of statistical signal
processing techniques and LDPC codes. According to the company, "it
facilitates the shift to lower-cost and denser flash technologies,
increasing the capacity and lowering the cost of memory in a wide range
of consumer electronics, computing and enterprise storage products."
Its system IP solution is comprised of a synthesizable digital IP core,
firmware, FPGA reference system, performance test software and other
components. In addition to Flash Read Channel, it includes Proton’s
programmable low-level controller/command sequencer enabling
communication to various NAND flash devices in standard and vendor
modes. The start-up also stated:" Proton is able to dramatically
extend the endurance of NAND flash products versus currently available
solutions – all with power requirements 50% less than current market
estimates."

Its system solution IP (digital cores, firmware, FPGA reference,
performance test software) is targeted at flash controller and SSD
makers to shift to its low-cost denser flash technologies. Supporting
data rates from 50MB/s to 5GB/s for a single decoder instance, Proton
uses its LDPC Compiler technology to generate data rates, area, and
power requirements to meet specific controller requirements.

The company claimed its technology has already been adopted by "some of the world’s largest flash players", without naming anyone.

The big guy at Proton is founder and CEO Dr. Andrei Vityaev who was at
LSI where he managed the HDD read channel organization, and prior to
that was director of engineering at Broadcom after holding engineering
management and marketing positions at Infineon and Marvell.

The firm just recruited Sanjay Srivastava as executive chairman. He was
over 15 years CEO of Denalin, acquired by Cadence in June 2010 for $315
million.

The executive team also included
some other specialists of read channel:

• EVP strategy and business development Jett Winter,
• VP of design engineering Dr. Hooman Parizi formerly at Broadcom,
• Director of architecture and applications Dr. Nenad Miladinović,
  previously read channel architect at Samsung HDD division and an
  architect for high volume LDPC-based HDD read channels at LSI, and
• Chief technologist for IP platform Dr. Clifton Williamson having
  previous positions of read channel architect at LSI/Agere and director
  of controller/formatter IP development at Seagate.

Among start-ups competing with Proton, there are DensBits Technologies,
and Israeli and well-funded designer of eMMC controller supporting TLC
and MLC flash devices and in which Seagate invested, as well as Skyera,
also in San Jose, in MLC SSD controller supposed to extend flash
endurance "by 100x".

To read a presentation of Proton’s technology LDPC Compiler For NAND Flash and SSD Controllers by Nenad Miladinović at 2012 Flash Memory Summit