Embedded World: Micron Unveils 1.5TB microSD i400 Card With 176-Layer NAND

Micron Technology, Inc. announced expansions to its embedded product portfolio and ecosystem partnerships to deliver solutions for complex memory and storage demands at the intelligent edge.

The company is sampling to customers the highest-capacity microSD card, the i400, at a density of 1.5TB. This card is designed for industrial-grade video security with the 176-layer 3D NAND, also pioneered by the firm. To better provide its performance, ruggedized solutions to the industrial market, the company is also adding partners to its Industrial Quotient (IQ) partner program.

Additionally, the company received the first International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 26262 Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) D certification of memory for its low-power double data rate 5 (LPDDR5) DRAM, which is based on its first-to-market 1α (1-alpha) process node. With next-gen advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) applications requiring increasing levels of autonomy and safety, this certification validates that firm’s LPDDR5 meets strict functional safety standards and positions it to enable innovations that will unleash full autonomy in intelligent vehicles.

As 5G, AI and the IoT converge at the edge, the world is experiencing an explosion of devices across autonomous vehicles, video security, smart factories, energy infrastructure, robotics, industrial transport, healthcare and more. ABI Research estimates 25 billion connected IoT devices by 2026,⁽¹⁾ each gen enormous amounts of mission-critical data. This data increasingly needs to be stored, managed and analyzed at the edge – where it is created – for actionable real-time insights. Facilitating these tasks requires industrial-grade memory and storage capable of processing massive data sets in harsh conditions, from high temperatures to shock and vibrations.

“With edge devices generating critical insights for everything from public safety to vehicle autonomy to manufacturing operations, today’s smart applications cannot afford to compromise on latency or quality,” said Kris Baxter, corporate VP and GM, embedded business unit. “Micron’s newest high-performance, ruggedized solutions – our i400 microSD card for video security and automotive ASIL-D-qualified LPDDR5 – will unlock new value for businesses and drive the rapid innovation needed at the intelligent edge.”

These solutions generate more value for enterprises at the intelligent edge with proprietary features purpose-built for industrial applications. Unlike consumer-grade memory and storage that can malfunction in industrial environments and result in critical data loss or disrupted operations, the firm’s i400 and automotive LPDDR5 are tailored to offer the longevity and reliability needed to speed innovation and extract greater business value at the edge.

1.5TB microSD delivers industrial storage for AI-enhanced video security
With rising demand for real-time video security, the Internet protocol video security and video security-as-a-service (VSaaS) market is estimated to be worth $83 billion by 2030. ⁽²⁾ Fleet dash cameras, smart home security, police body cameras and AI-enabled cameras in factories all need storage capable of handling media-rich data. As the highest capacity microSD card, i400 is for video storage at the edge and hybrid VSaaS deployments.

The substantial 1.5TB density can store up to 4 months or 120 days of video security media locally, enabling users to optimize what data is stored in the cloud. This capacity eliminates the need to continuously upload data to the cloud for primary storage, a process that guzzles network bandwidth and operational expenses.⁽³⁾ Small businesses looking to reduce expensive bandwidth or remote sites – such as cargo ships or oil rigs with limited connectivity – can instead periodically upload data to the cloud for backup while relying day to day on i400 storage at the edge. Bringing primary storage to the edge enables real-time AI analytics and faster decision-making within smart cameras. This speed is especially crucial for critical law enforcement, public health or safety decisions.

Unlike most cards on the market that are consumer-grade and have limited write capability, the i400 is designed for the video security environment with features such as:

• 5 years of high-quality continuous 24×7 recording
• Ability to concurrently handle 4K video recording and up to 8 AI events per second, such as object detection and classification like license plate or facial recognition
• 2 million hours for mean time to failure

The company is sampling the i400 to customers, including Verkada, Inc., a cloud-managed enterprise building-security provider, which protects over 12,000 organizations, including 43 of the Fortune 500, with its intelligent cameras and recently donated cameras to Asian American-owned businesses seeking enhanced safety to address the spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, which have risen by 339% in USA last year.

“Micron’s industrial-grade storage is key to helping us protect our customers and communities, from schools to large enterprises, by meeting the most demanding of video retention and security requirements,” said Raj Misra, VP, hardware engineering,Verkada. “The latest i400 solution will provide further peace of mind by enabling greater video storage at the edge and faster in-camera AI analytics – important in crises where response time is paramount.”

Achieves first LPDDR5 ISO 26262 ASIL-D certification
ADAS-enabled vehicles run over 100 million lines of code and require hundreds of tera operations per second, rivaling data center compute. Gartner projects the WW factory-fitted automotive memory market will grow to nearly $15 billion in 2026, quadrupling from $3.3 billion last year.⁽⁴⁾ At the same time, automakers must comply with strict functional safety standards for electronic systems. Trusted, high-performance memory is imperative for reliably powering safety-critical applications such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and blind-spot detection. It is also key to unlocking ADAS technologies such as autonomous valet parking and ridesharing, 4D digital imaging radar, and hands-free experiences that will pave the way for full Level 5 autonomy.

Filling these needs, the firm’s automotive LPDDR5 memory is certified by exida, an expert in automotive safety, for the most stringent safety integrity level, ASIL D, under ISO 26262. LPDDR5’s high performance, power efficiency and low latency also provide the headroom to keep pace with rising bandwidth requirements of next-generation automotive systems.

Now in mass production in 48GB and 96Gb densities, company’s LPDDR5 offers:

• Proprietary on-chip safety features, including capabilities to detect and alert the system of systematic and random hardware faults so the vehicle can intelligently react and respond
• Up to 50% increase in data access speeds, enabling near-instantaneous decision-making from intelligent vehicles’ multiple sensors and inputs, such as radar, lidar, hi-resolution imaging, 5G networking and optical image recognition ⁽⁵⁾
• Over 30% improvement in power efficiency, minimizing power consumption for electric and conventional vehicles and resulting in greener, longer-range transportation with lower emissions ⁽⁶⁾

While the ISO 26262 standard does not explicitly require memory to be ASIL-compliant today, Micron has gone the extra mile to achieve this first certification and architect its proprietary on-chip safety features, recognizing how critical memory is to safety applications. These one-of-a-kind capabilities reduce the burden for automakers by minimizing their need to build in additional mechanisms to mitigate risk, thereby simplifying system design and accelerating time to market. Beyond the product certification of LPDDR5 for ASIL D, exida has also certified Micron’s process capability to develop any synchronous DRAM product according to ISO 26262 requirements. This capability equips the company to release additional solutions in its portfolio of automotive solutions based on ISO 26262 soon.

These certifications follow Micron’s 2021 milestone of sampling the first LPDDR5 hardware-evaluated to meet ASIL-D suitability requirements and of establishing an office of functional safety. The office is dedicated to collaborating with customers on the memory requirements of designing safe automotive systems through the company’s labs in Munich, Germany,  Detroit, MI, Shanghai, China, Tokyo, Japan, and beyond.

Industrial quotient partner program gains traction with additions 
Complementing these developments, the company is adding embedded and edge computing module providers Congatec GmbH and PHYTEC to its IQ partner program. The IQ program fosters close collaboration with ecosystem partners to produce solutions that are tightly aligned to the industrial market’s demanding requirements for quality, longevity, ruggedization and reliability. These characteristics are vital for industrial implementations, such as factories, that need equipment to run smoothly for decades.

Congatec and PHYTEC design and manufacture computer-on-modules and system-on-modules, respectively, used in medical technology, industrial automation, renewable energy, aerospace, transportation and other industries. The addition of these 2 companies, both based in Germany, make the firm’s memory and storage solutions more broadly accessible to the industrial market and better serve the burgeoning European Industry 4.0 market.

These product portfolio and partner updates strengthen the company’s leadership in intelligent edge markets, with the company positioned in both the automotive ⁽⁷⁾ and industrial ⁽⁸⁾ segments as the memory market share leader.

Resources:
Solutions overview: Micron Industrial microSD Cards: The Card That Never Sleeps   
Blog: Micron Delivers ASIL-D ISO 26262-Certified LPDDR5 for Safety Requirements   
Product page: Functional Safety for Automotive    
Podcast: Chips Out Loud: Industry-First ASIL-D ISO 26262-Certified LPDDR5 to Address Advanced Automotive Applications With Strict Safety Requirements    
Blog: Why Building Solutions With Industrial-Grade Products Really Matters   
Program page: Industrial Quotient Partners   
Video: Micron’s Industrial Quotient

⁽¹⁾ ABI Research, IoT Market Tracker – Worldwide, 2Q22
⁽²⁾ Allied Market Research, IP Video Surveillance and VSaaS Market By Product Type (Hardware, Software, Cloud Based Solutions, and Services) and Application (Banking and Financial Sector, Retail, Government & Higher Security, Manufacturing and Corporate, Residential, Entertainment, Hea
⁽³⁾ Assumes a bit rate of 1Mb/s
⁽⁴⁾ Gartner, Semiconductor and Electronics Forecast Database, Worldwide, 1Q22 Update
⁽⁵⁾ Compares Micron’s LPDDR5 with random fault coverage to like devices without safety features
⁽⁶⁾ Compares Micron’s LPDDR5 with random fault coverage to like devices without safety features
⁽⁷⁾ Automotive market share calculated by revenue; Gartner, Market Share: Semiconductors by End Market, Worldwide, 2021
⁽⁸⁾ Industrial market share calculated by revenue; OMDIA, Industrial Semiconductor Market Tracker – 4Q21 Analysis