- Product Selection
- 3D or MLC
- Application Guide
- Flash Type Reliability
- Benefit of pSLC
- Fixed Bom Solution
- P/E Cycle
- High-IOPS
- Power Loss Protection
- Physical Destruction
- Temperature Grade
- Certification
- WORM Solution
- SMART Tool
- AES-256
- Auto Read Refresh
- Advanced Wear Leveling
- Military Solution
- Reliability Testing
- Over-Provisioning
- Why Over-Provisioning
- SSD vs. Extra OP
- X-MaskTM Platform
Business Strategy
Each flash die cycle lasts about 6-9 months for 3D TLC / 2.5 – 3 years for MLC or pSLC / 5 years for SLC. However, we can support the fixed BOM part for an additional 2 years at Flexxon’s liability. On top of that, we can extend the product life by replacing the flash and retaining the same controller (same series model) to achieve another 2 years of support. In total, the same series/ model part can last for at least 4 years. With the same controller, it will greatly reduce the compatibility issues with the customer’s host during the re-qualification.
Also, we can work with the customer to buffer flash and continue supporting fixed BOM ( same controller, same firmware version, same flash version ) for over 10 years. Flexxon does not EOL our solution as long as our customers still require it and have buffered the flash in place.
Our value and business strategy are to provide longevity assurance to support businesses in the IMA market especially yours for a longer period. We offer the following options:
- Option 1: Upon part approval, we can support this part for over 1 year for 3D TLC / 2.5 – 3 years for MLC or pSLC / 5 years for SLC as we have many customers who are also using this mainstream product that you are going to sample. So, we can do some internal allocation to support this part for a long time when the demand forecast is provided.
- Option 2: Another option is that we could work with you to buffer flash and continue to support fixed BOM (same controller, same firmware version, same flash version) for even over 10 years.
Flexxon never EOL our solutions as long as our customer still need the solutions and has provided the flash buffer in place. This is our memory strategy and our practice to prolong the product life cycle in such a fast technology change market to support all our customers.
We have a proven record of continually serving the IMA market. Most companies that we have been supporting had switched to us after receiving EOL notice from major players such as Kingston, Micron and they have been enjoying longevity assurance and tip-top support from us.
Pricing is always on the move for memory in general as you know. Our strategy is to offer a stable and low average price as opposed to the “price of the day” approach of some of our competitors. Our long-term customers appreciate this approach as they can plan more effectively. We are always competitive on an apple to apple comparison. If you find our pricing to be way off it usually means that we are not quoting on the same specs. The bottom line is that we will compete aggressively and, once we are engaged, we will provide stable pricing for the life of your program.
We support a range of customization such as PCB re-layout, conformal coating, firmware customization, BGA underfill, label printing, pre-loaded content and many more. We are open to discussion for any customization services that are not listed here.
Yes, we work with a number of distributors. Kindly find the list below.
| Distributors | Number | Email Address |
|---|---|---|
| World Micro | +1-800-400-5026 | [email protected] |
| Edge Electronics, Inc. | +1-631-471-3343 | [email protected] |
| Masline Electronics, Inc. | +1-800-627-5463 | [email protected] |
| NAC Semi (NAC Group, Inc.) | +1-866-651-2901 | [email protected] |
| Future Electronics, Inc. (Worldwide) |
Find the different branch office here: https://www.futureelectronics.com/contact-us/branch-locations | |
Logistics Management
Flexxon provides replacement or repair services to our customers for defective products within the applicable warranty period. During the warranty period, Flexxon will provide warranty service pursuant to the terms and conditions in this document.
https://www.flexxon.com/warranty-information/
Product Knowledge
Most market players offer 3D TLC solution in 1K; however, Flexxon’s 3D TLC solution has the same for 3K PE Cycle as the MLC part. In order to achieve better supply in the future, we would propose you to move towards taking up our 3D solutions.
Please refer to our application guide via this link.
Please refer to the attached comparison of different endurance level. We offer pSLC / 3D pSLC solution that support higher endurance level with competitive pricing.
We offer pSLC solution that support 10 times endurance and cost only double the price of MLC.
Industrial customers have been facing compatibility issues as such we offer the fixed-bom solution. The controller, firmware and NAND flash of the solution will be fixed upon sample approval to ensure they will receive the exact part during the mass production.
(P/E) cycle refers to the program/erase cycle. Program-erase (PE) cycles can serve as a criterion for quantifying the endurance of a flash storage device.
Most data storage solutions in the market provide good sequential performance for large data activities. But, Flexxon also offers High IOPS solutions that work efficiently to provide high random performance for small data activities.
FLEXXON has firmware and hardware power loss protection for our solutions to minimize the risk of data loss due to sudden power loss or unstable power supply.
In the firmware, data is protected to prevent data loss and pair page effect. In hardware, the power loss protection is done using super capacitors or tantalum capacitors.
This function is available in our Galaxy series, the military-grade solution. This is to ensure that the data in NAND flash is permanently destroyed and unrecoverable within 2 seconds by transmitting high voltage to trigger the physical destruction of each NAND flash IC.
We support a wide range of temperature grade solutions from commercial to industrial grade. Kindly refer to the image below.
We support standard range of products regulatory certifications. However, if you do have any other requirements on certifications, do let us know and we will be able to apply on your behalf.
- Mainstream product for (SATA/ PATA/…….)
Kindly refer to our product selection guide via our partner portal Link.
Flexxon’s Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) SD/MicroSD card eliminates the risk of having sensitive files deleted, modified, or overwritten while still granting read-only access to those who need it most.
Kindly find out more on this solution via this link.
The SMART tool monitors the health and shows you various parameters such as endurance percentage, erase count, total power on the count, and bad block status. It does not require any special hardware tool to read the information.
AES-256 encryption technology for data security. AES is a certified algorithm for encrypting any critical data in the Self-Encrypting Drive. The encryption key remains unknown to the manufacturers and buyers.
The Auto Read Refresh function ensures maximum efficiency of read operations by automatically moving data to a new block before a preset error level threshold is reached.
The Advanced Wear Leveling evens out erasures and rewrites in the memory blocks for an extended life span especially in embedded operating systems.
FLEXXON GALAXY Series SSD is specially designed for Military grade applications by its distinctive attributes, such as High Reliability, High Performance and Intense Security. It provides high-end features such as Self-Destruction, Secure Erase. Full Drive Hardware Encryption, Hardware Design For UPS and many more. It is compliant to Nato Cage Code
We provide a wide range of reliability testing below. If there are other test that you require, do feel free to discuss with us.
An SSD controller is responsible for the massive task of managing all data traffic and storage for the drive. NAND technology’s intrinsic complexities require a lot of extra work behind the scenes. A data write is not as simple as placing data into an empty memory bank. Each NAND cell has a limited lifespan – it can only endure a specific number of data reads/writes. An additional layer of complexity is added by the fact that overwriting old data on NAND requires an erase of the entire NAND block (this same block may contain other data that is still valid). As a result, the controller is constantly moving data around to ensure that the cells wear evenly and to pre-emptively prepare “free blocks” to use for future data writes.
All of this management work requires the SSD to have a kind of “swap space” available to use as temporary storage while the controller goes about its business. The controller will use any available free space for this, but free space becomes a premium commodity as we fill our drives with data. OP is a way to set aside a minimum amount of free space, inaccessible to the user or the OS, which the SSD controller can utilize as a kind of “work bench.”
OP has a direct effect on SSD performance under sustained workloads and as the drive is filled with data. Guaranteeing free space to accomplish the NAND management tasks discussed above (Garbage Collection, Wear-Levelling, Bad Block Management) means the SSD does not have to waste time preparing space on demand, a process that requires additional time as data is copied, erased, and recopied. An added benefit is that OP makes all of the SSD maintenance procedures more efficient, reducing the WAF by ensuring there’s room to work.
Consider this scenario: You are a chef with very limited counter space (say one arm’s length across and half and arm’s length deep). Preparing a 5-course meal in such a limited area would mean you have to waste a lot of time moving things around or putting them away to make room for other tasks. Now, imagine you quadruple your work space. You can leave everything you need at hand, reduce repeating steps (like getting the salt from the pantry and putting it back away), and increase your working speed. The same goes for SSDs. Give them more room to work, and they can do it more quickly and efficiently, reducing WAF and increasing performance at the same time.
For SSD with full capacity (512GB, 1TB) and SSD with extra OP (480GB, 960GB), using the same capacity NAND flash.
The following picture illustrates the SSD with inherent OP and additional OP. All SSD has inherent OP, but for 480GB/960GB SSD, it has additional OP with improved endurance and reliability compared to Full Capacity SSD.
The following illustration shows higher OP increases the TBW. Therefore, for industrial application, especially with the 3D NAND flash, we highly recommend to use SSD with extra OP.
Nevertheless, we are still able to support full capacity size, if the customer insist.
We are able to support Windows AP for X-MaskTM Series currently.
For other OS, we can share with you the general SDK.
Please kindly fill in your platform information and we will check the SDK based on your platform.
| Description | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Architecture | Architecture | ARM |
| Bus width | 32-bit | |
| Others | ||
| Operation System | Linux Kernel | 3.19.3 |
| OS Version | Ubuntu ver15.04 | |
| File System | ext3 | |
| Others | ||
| Development Environment | Toolchain | |
| Compiler Version | Government | |
| Language | C++ | |
| Others | ||
| Schedule | Start | asap |
| Beta version schedule | 2020Q4 | |
| Production schedule | 2021Q1 | |
| Others | ||
WORM SOLUTION
No. Flexxon WORM card supports WORM mode without any additional software.
Windows, Android and Linux are the operating system supported by WORM card.
Yes. FLEXXON WORM Card could support 2 partitions upon request with the condition below:
- Partition 1: Standard Partition. Read/ Write/ Delete/ modify/ overwritten/ parallel writing is possible. Also, it could support another file system such as exFAT/ ext3/ ext4
- Partition 2: WORM Partition. User could not modify/ delete/ overwritten/ format the data. Only support FAT32 file system.
No, user have no authority to format it to other file system.
For this current version it only supports FAT32 file system and WORM card is done in the firmware level.
Please refer to question 4 if you require other file system.
The block allocation size of WORM Card is 32KB.
After data is written, there is no way to change, modify, delete and format.
You can write data until full capacity. After data is written, it could not be change, modify, delete and format.
WORM card does not support parallel writing such as real time recording. For writing files, it must follow “one by one” sequential writing. That is, a file writing must be finished completely first before starting another one.
Flexxon WORM card uses Flexxon proprietary crypto algorithm DSD which perform data scrambling and descrambling. Flexxon WORM Card perform read and write through scramble algorithms.
Illegal notification is required to support by host. If your host does not show notification, you may follow the following procedure to get the notification.
(i) Windows User
- Option 1: User Configure Host
Please refer to “FLEXXON WORM Card Operation Flow” for host configuration. - Option 2: Unplug and reinsert to verify content
If you could not configure your host, you are required to unplug and plug in the WORM card to verify the content after illegal behaviour (Rename/ delete/ overwritten).
(ii) Android User
- Option 1: Install WORM Android APK
You may install Flexxon WORM Android APK for notification after illegal action. - Option 2: Unplug and reinsert to verify content
If you use the Android default file manager, you are required to unplug and plug in the WORM card to verify the content after illegal behaviour (Rename/ delete/ overwritten).