Apro Phanes-K Series MLC and aSLC CFast Cards With Phison Controller and Toshiba Flash IC

APRO Co. Ltd. releases PHANES-K Series MLC and aSLC CFast cards.

aSLC CFA PHANES-K

PHANES-K Series MLC and aSLC CFast cards use Phison Electronics Corp.‘s controller and Toshiba Memory Corporation‘s flash IC, providing both MLC and aSLC at the sequential R/W speeds up to 555MB/s and 465MB/s.

The firmware of PHANES-K Series MLC and aSLC CFast cards are designed with below technologies to ensure reliability and increase the lifespan for NAND flash IC on heavy workload:

aSLC Technology:
The aSLC can be considered as an extended version of the MLC. While MLC contains both fast and slow pages, aSLC only utilizes fast pages for programming. The concept of aSLC is demonstrated in the figure below. The first and second bits of a memory cell represent a fast and slow page respectively, as shown in the left table. Since only fast pages are programmed when applying aSLC, the bits highlighted in red are used, as shown in the right table. As a result, aSLC provides better performance at same capacity and endurance than MLC does. Moreover, the aSLC performs similarly to SLC based CFast Cards, yet more cost effective.

LDPC ECC: The LDPC (low-density parity check ECC) technology, comparing to the existing ECC, has more error correction capability for longer code lengths, and it can improve the life cycle of flash memory which means more errors can be corrected on each page to maintain a longer lifespan of the flash memory.
Power Loss Data Protection: In order to ensure that the last R/W command can be completed, the firmware-based power loss data protection will stop reading or writing command when it senses the unstable power or insufficient wattage. Therefore, the data can be saved in the CFast card. Once the power is restored, the system will move on with the process.
Static and dynamic wear leveling: The wear leveling algorithm is used to spread the usage across the whole medium of flash memory. Besides, the static and dynamic wear leveling also improves the lifespan of NAND flash memory.
Garbage collection and TRIM: The cards use garbage collection and TRIM to reduce the amount of garbage in order to decrease the unnecessary wear of the flash IC.
S.M.A.R.T.: The user can check the health condition of the CFast card by the implemented S.M.A.R.T. function. It can not only predict the lifespan of CFast card, but collect the data to know the usage of CFast card, letting users replace with the new product at the proper time. Or, you can also provide the relevant data to the company’s engineer to do the technical analysis, and the firm will offer the effective solution.

The PHANES-K Series MLC and aSLC CFast cards are compliant with CFast2.0 specification and ATA8-ACS2 command set and are designed with 7-pin data and 17-pin power connectors. Combining of CF card’s form factor and SATA interface makes APRO PHANES-K Series cards improve traditional CF card under the conditions of small form factor and harsh environment.

In addition, the PHANES-K Series cards also conform to the SATA 3.2 (6Gb/s) specification with low power consumption and provide compatibility with 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s interface.

To ensure the reliability of quality and ability in different environment temperatures, the company chooses high-end components and conform to the standard of the industrial system. PHANES-K Series MLC and aSLC CFast cards are designed to be used in the standard temperature 0°C ~ +70°C and also in wide temperature -40°C ~ +85°C.

Furthermore, the firm applies the conformal coating to the PCBA of CFast cards to combine the advantages of moisture, dirt, and dust prevention and chemical pollution. The conformal coating can also prevent the corrosion from soldering, becoming an isolation and eliminating the electromagnetic interference.

Capacities:

PHANES-K Series MLC CFast card: 32, 64 and 128GB
PHANES-K Series aSLC CFast card: 16, 32 and 64GB

MLC CFA PHANES-K
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aSLC CFA PHANES-K
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Read also:
Apro Phanes-K Series MLC M.2 2242/2280 6Gb SATA SSD
8 to 256GB for M.2 2242 SATA III SSD, and 8 to 512GB for M.2 2280 6Gb SATA SSD, up to 550MB/s and 490MB/s sequential RW