Avi Klein
Sr. Principal Engineer
Sandisk Corporation

The Case of Managed NAND

Today's flash based storage applications, driven by OEMs and end-users, continue to demand increasingly higher capacities at affordable prices. At the same time, the markets for flash based products are also diversifying as flash is utilized in more and more applications. And so producing application-customized flash based storage products requires overcoming two considerable challenges on a system level:

• Traditional shrinkage of geometry, which becomes increasingly difficult, coupled with the evolution of MLC NAND from 2 bits per cell to 3 bits per cell and beyond.
• Adapting the flash media to the unique requirements of each application.

The constant evolution of flash management technology is crucial in order to maintain the performance and reliability of flash as technology progresses, and as storage applications diversify. Next generation flash management is based not only on a deep system understanding of flash technology and innovation, but also on the unique requirements of storage applications.