Merchant SD 5.1 Controller Solution From Silicon Motion

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation announced that its SM2703 SD controller supports random R/W performance of up to 2,000/800 IO/s to meet the A1 (Application Performance Class 1) requirements from the SD 5.1 specifications.

Controller architecture

By meeting the A1 performance standard and offering compatibility with the Android 7.0/6.0 adoptable storage platform, SM2703-based SD cards allow users to expand the internal storage in Android smartphones via a larger unified, performance embedded memory.

The SM2703 delivers 4K random R/W speeds of up to 2,000/800 IO/s in multi-die configurations and 2,000/650 IO/s on a single TLC die – exceeding the SD 5.1 A1 performance requirements (random R/W: 1,500/500 IO/s). In addition, the SM2703’s compliance with SD 5.1 and compatibility with the latest version of Android’s adoptable storage platform enables the integration of SD card and internal storage as a single storage platform for user applications, data and media.

“Android smartphone shipments accounted for more than 85% of the worldwide market share, and 70 to 80% of these phones have microSD slots,” said Nelson Duann, SVP, product marketing, Silicon Motion, “We have been working with the SD Association and our ecosystem partners in bringing this latest specification to market. With the SM2703 controller now supporting SD 5.1, our partners can rapidly bring to market a new generation of SD cards to enable a much better user experience and extend the usability of the Android smartphones”.

SM2703 is a single channel UHS-I controller that has been adopted by over 100 manufacturers worldwide with quality, stability and performance. Its firmware drives high random performance with industry capabilities, including:

High random performance:

4K random read/write IO/s up to 2,000/650 with one TLC die
4K random read/write IO/s up to 2,000/800 with multi-die
Complies with SD 5.1 and supports A1 performance
Compatible with Android 7.0/6.0 adoptable storage platform
Supports all the latest generation, cost-effective NAND including 3D TLC NAND from major NAND suppliers
Supports video speed class 30 for 4K video recording