Out in Front: December 7, 1995

Nexcom has formed a strategic alliance with Oki Electric to develop and manufacture a new type of flash-memory device. The device, based on Nexcom’s NexFlash technology, uses a one-transistor cell that combines EEPROM and NOR-flash characteristics. Unlike standard NOR technology, NexFlash uses Fowler-Nordheim tunneling for both erase and write, whereas NOR flash uses hot-electron injection for erase. The company has also developed patented mixed-polarity isolation techniques to eliminate the EEPROM’s select gates. Nexcom flash uses 3.3 or 5V externally for program and erase operations. You can reprogram the 512-byte erase-block sector in approximately 5 msec, including erase.

The first flash device from Nexcom, the 8-Mbit, serial NX26F080, provides access via a simple two-wire interface that supports clock speeds as high as 20 MHz. Prices for the NX26F080 range from $20 to $30, depending on the speed. The company will use these devices and a separate controller chip to manufacture PC Card ATA solid-state disks. You can also purchase Nexcom’s development board and firmware library to develop your own products. -- by Markus Levy

Nexcom Technology, Sunnyvale, CA. (408) 730-3690.