ONFI Announces Publication of 4.1 Standard, Extending Speed to 1200 MT/s with Low Power Enhancements

BOISE, Idaho, May 02, 2018 -- The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) Working Group, the organization dedicated to simplifying integration of NAND Flash memory into solid-state drives, consumer electronic devices, computing platforms, and industrial systems, has published the new ONFI 4.1 standard. The ONFI 4.1 standard extends the low-power, high-performance non-volatile DDR3 (NV-DDR3) interface from 800 MT/s to 1200 MT/s, providing a NAND interface performance boost of up to 50%.

“Speeds of NVM Express solid-state drives are continuing to increase as customers demand higher performance and larger capacities,” said Currie Munce, Vice President of SSD Engineering at Micron Technology, Inc. “With the completion of the PCI Express 4.0 specification, there is increased need for faster data transfer from the NAND components to the SSD controller. ONFI provides that key linkage in today’s SSDs, and its performance will continue to scale as the PCI SIG delivers the PCI Express 5.0 specification next year.”

To improve signaling at these higher data rates, the ONFI 4.1 standard introduces new duty cycle correction along with read and write training modes. These training modes enable the NAND memory and controller to adjust I/O signal timings and characteristics, achieving superior signaling at data rates. For lower power, the new standard adds support for reduced I/O pin capacitance devices that feature 37.5 Ohms default drive strength, as well as introducing 2.5V Vcc support that enables higher performance from circuit simplifications.

“As a leading controller and solution provider, Phison is extremely excited to see an overall upgrade of NAND standards by the completion of ONFI 4.1," said Horace Chen, Director of Product Management at Phison Electronics. “Performance improvements for entry-level PCI Gen3 SSD and high-end UFS 3.0 mobile storage would not be achievable without a breakthrough in the speed and power consumption of the NAND interface. ONFI 4.1 leads the way in providing these required improvements.” 

The new standard was developed in concert with the JEDEC/ONFI Joint Task Group in order to ensure interoperability with other JEDEC vendors. ONFI 4.1 continues to provide a superset of features beyond those provided in the JESD230 NAND Flash Interface Interoperability standard jointly developed by JEDEC and ONFI.

"The latest offering, ONFI 4.1, provides the value proposition our SSD’s need, pushing the transfer rate by 50% over ONFI 4.0 in a power efficient manner," said Amber Huffman, Fellow at Intel Corporation and ONFI Board chair.  "Intel is encouraged by the progress that ONFI has driven in the industry for the past decade."

About ONFI

The ONFI Working Group is dedicated to simplifying integration of NAND Flash memory into consumer electronics (CE) applications and computing platforms. Before the advancements made by the working group, use of NAND Flash in these end-use applications was hampered by the lack of sufficient standardization. To support a new NAND Flash component on a platform, host software and hardware changes were often required. Implementing these changes was extremely costly due to the new testing cycle required – which led to slower rates of adoption for new NAND Flash components. ONFI aims to remedy that problem and speed time to market for NAND Flash based applications.

The ONFI Working Group was formed in May 2006 and currently has more than 100 member companies. ONFI’s founding companies include Intel Corporation, Micron Technology, Inc., Phison Electronics Corporation, Western Digital, SK Hynix and Sony Corporation.

Please visit www.ONFI.org to download the standard or for more information on the initiative and how to become a contributor.

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