Electronica: Micron Introduced 1TB Automotive and Industrial Grade PCIe NVMe SSD in BGA and M.2 Form Factors

Micron Technology, Inc. introduced an 1TB automotive and industrial grade PCIe NVMe SSD in BGA and 22x30mm M.2 form factors at Electronica 2018.

Based on 64-layer TLC 3D NAND technology, the 2100 series of NVMe SSDs is designed for next-generation autonomous cars and the industrial internet of things (IioT).

As data requirements in connected cars with advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) increase, vehicles are transforming into data centres on wheels, requiring faster, reliable and cost-effective storage. In addition, the proliferation of edge computing and use of AI in IIoT applications is driving a similar need for faster storage that is not supported by legacy interfaces like SATA and e.MMC.

“Strategy Analytics estimates that 1.8 million cars with Level 3 or higher autonomous driving capabilities will be sold in 2023. These cars are expected to require up to 1TB of flash storage for 3D maps, black box recording, sensor data and 4K infotainment content,” said Ian Riches, executive director, global automotive practice, Strategy Analytics. “The introduction of Micron’s PCIe NVMe automotive SSD is a much-needed development toward overcoming the bandwidth, latency and capacity challenges of ADAS and is well-suited to service the storage needs of future self-driving cars.“

“As a leading innovator of memory and storage technologies, Micron has several decades of experience working with automotive and industrial manufacturers to address their challenges,” said Aravind Ramamoorthy, director senior, NAND product line, embedded business unit, Micron. “The Micron 2100 SSD offers industry-leading capacity, performance, reliability and low-cost storage in a small form factor.“

2100 SSD key features:

Performance: Up to 2,000MB/s reads and 1,100MB/s writes, >2X faster reads and >1.5X faster writes than UFS 2.1 and SATA 3 interfaces ⁽¹⁾
Capacity in small form factor: Available in 64GB to 1TB densities ⁽²⁾ and 16x20mm BGA and 22x30mm M.2 form factors
Low-power: Optimised for reduced power consumption with lower estimated energy usage vs. UFS 2.1⁽³⁾
Operating temperature: -40°C to 105°C and -40°C to 95°C Tcase
Storage interface: PCIe x4 Gen3, NVMe 1.3 with direct boot option, bypassing the need for another storage device for boot; NVMe shows >25% and >15% improvement in system write and read speeds, respectively, over SCSI software storage stack used in UFS⁽⁴⁾
Quality and reliability: AEC-Q100, IATF 16949-compliant
Automotive and industrial specific features: End-to-end data path protection, SLC partitioning support for high endurance, TCG Opal with self-encryption capability
Cost-effective: Based on industry 64-layer TLC NAND with CMOS under array technology

“We are pleased that Micron is announcing the industry’s first automotive grade PCIe SSD based on TLC 3D NAND for next-generation IVI and ADAS systems,” said Nikolaus Bettinger, head, memory purchasing, Continental Automotive GmbH. “Micron’s automotive PCIe SSD offers the higher performance, capacity and reliability needed for Continental’s next-generation autonomous driving solutions.“

“The new Micron 2100 SSD, with its extended operating temperature range, brings unprecedented storage performance and capacity for numerous industrial applications in a compact 16x20mm BGA form factor,” said Yves Desrochers, technology architect and industry relations, Kontron S&T AG – an S&T company

The company’s 2100AI and 2100AT PCIe-based NVMe SSDs are sampling to automotive and industrial customers, with volume production expected in 2H19.

⁽¹⁾ 256GB density, 128KB sequential read access, nominal temperature, FOB, QD32, self-encryption enabled for PCIe SSD. May vary based on upon host and test environments.
⁽²⁾ 1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes. User available space may be less.
⁽³⁾ Micron internal estimates.
⁽⁴⁾ Micron WP: Comparing UFS and NVMe Storage Stack and System-Level Performance in Embedded Systems