Availability of Italian NplusT NanoCycler HS 20 NAND Characterization System

Italian company NplusT Srl announced the availability of NanoCycler HS 20, the next-gen NAND characterization system.

NanoCycler HS20 is a commercial system performing NAND characterization and test at 2.0GT/s HS20 supports BGA132, BGA152 and BGA154 packages.

Operating the NAND during characterization in the same manner as it will work in the target SSD, is essential to obtain high-quality test results, and consequently to optimize the SSD design and media management algorithms, for performance and reliability. The NAND interface speed is one of the key factors impacting array timing and thermal conditions, power, signal and data integrity.

To meet these critical objectives, the company is committed to always delivering test systems, in line with the speed and feature roadmap of the top NAND manufacturers. NanoCycler HS24 running at 2.4GT/s is under development and is expected within the end of the year.

NanoCycler, in addition to high speed NAND interface, supports all features which make it one-stop solution for NAND characterization:

• Full independency of the test sockets, ability to run independent tests, or the same test with different parameters on each socket, optimizing the statistical data generation at multiple test conditions;

• Per NAND package, accurate and fast rate temperature control;

• Write and verify data pattern generation with zero overhead, including ‘perfect’ random data pattern;

• Fast bitmap data transfer from/to the device under test;

• Measurement of flash operating timing at high resolution;

• High-resolution NAND power profiling for optimal SSD power integrity:

  • • Detection of current peaks and average power of the operations, by applying an intelligent filtering algorithm;

    • Waveform capture of the currents, to increase the visibility on the dynamic power consumption during the different stages of the NAND operations;

• Built-in, customizable interface training algorithms with few picoseconds timing resolution;

• Programmable edge placement of the control signals with nanosecond resolution.

Ready-to-use development environment increases productivity thanks to:

• Continuous NAND library update with most recent devices released by NAND vendors;

• Support of ONFi command set with predefined or custom data patterns;

• Configurable operation targets: single and multiple LUNs, CEs, channels;

• Support of proprietary commands sequences and vendor-specific commands with customizable signal and command sequences and timings;

• Implementation of customized test flows and algorithms using the Python language;

• Debug tools like a visual signal sequence display to help to troubleshoot;

• Easy-to-postprocess and customizable data log.

NanoCycler’s control software and user’s interface provide productive test system thanks to:

• GUI for test execution and high-level test flow definition;

• Data collection system shared by multiple test systems;

• Post-processing of the generated data with NplusT’s BarnieMAT data analysis suite or with customer specific or third-party software.

NanoCycler is scalable to optimize investment and cost-of-ownership, from 6-socket desktop tester to cascaded 84-socket racks, with the possibility to use different types of tester units in the same system.

NanoCycler – as demonstrated by 12th of users WW – is an equipment for understanding the recent NAND devices, thus building reliable SSDs from imperfect NANDs.

The knowledge generated about endurance, retention, disturb sensitivity, dynamic power consumption and other features are crucial to designing hardware and extending NAND lifetime via optimal media management algorithms.

About NplusT:
It was founded by Tamás Kerekes in 2002, with the purpose of creating a flexible team supporting semiconductor makers. Started as a high value-added engineering service provider, it applied its experience to become a provider of test and data analysis products and services for technology and product development. It is headquartered in Umbria, central Italy, with legal office in the picturesque village of Montecastrilli. The firm has set up such an organization targeting fast and efficient support to customers all over the world. It has developed solid relationship with universities and research institutes to integrate latest research results in the products.