Digital photography, MP3, digital video, etc. make extensive use of
NAND-based Flash cards as storage media. To realize how much NAND Flash
memories pervade every aspect of our life, just imagine how our recent
habits would change if the NAND memories suddenly disappeared. To take a
picture it would be necessary to find a film (as well as a traditional
camera...), disks or even magnetic tapes would be used to record a video
or to listen a song, and a cellular phone would return to be a simple
mean of communication rather than a multimedia console. The development
of NAND Flash memories will not be set down on the mere evolution of
personal entertainment systems since a new killer application can
trigger a further success: the replacement of Hard Disk Drives (HDDs)
with Solid State Drives (SSDs). SSD is made up by a microcontroller and
several NANDs. As NAND is the technology driver for IC circuits, Flash
designers and technologists have to deal with a lot of challenges.
Therefore, SSD (system) developers must understand Flash technology in
order to exploit its benefits and countermeasure its weaknesses. Inside
NAND Flash Memories is a comprehensive guide of the NAND world: from
circuits design (analog and digital) to Flash reliability (including
radiation effects), from testing issues to high-performance (DDR)
interface, from error correction codes to NAND applications like Flash
cards and SSDs.
