Denali Announces NAND Flash Platform for PCI Express

SoC Platform Enables Rapid Deployment of High-Performance NAND Flash System Designs

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Jan. 28, 2008 -- Denali Software, Inc., a world-leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and semiconductor intellectual property (IP), today announced the availability of its system-on-chip (SoC) platform product FlashPoint(TM). The FlashPoint platform is a complete system design that provides a PCI Express (PCIe) interface to high-performance NAND Flash memory. The platform uses a sophisticated design configuration engine that enables the system to be tuned for optimal performance with differentiating features for a range of products, including PC cache modules, solid state drives (SSD), and ExpressCard(TM) devices. FlashPoint provides a complete hardware design, software stack, and all necessary drivers to ensure fast time to market for products requiring high-performance interface to NAND flash memory.

"NAND Flash systems are becoming increasingly complex as the diversity of applications drives the need for a specialized, flexible, high-performance platform solution," remarks Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst at iSuppli. "Current commodity solutions will not meet the future market needs."

Denali's new FlashPoint platform includes support for the emerging Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface (NVMHCI) standard, an effort led by Dell, Intel, and Microsoft, which provides a standard software programming interface for nonvolatile memory subsystems. The NVMHCI interface is used by operating system drivers to access NAND Flash memory storage in applications such as hard drive caching and solid-state drives. One such example is the ReadyBoost(TM) and ReadyDrive(TM) features of the Windows Vista(R) operating system, which would use the NVMHCI interface to speed PC system performance and reduce overall power consumption.

"As one of the initial founders of the NVMHCI working group, Microsoft always has its finger on the pulse on emerging technologies," states James Borden, Industry Strategist at Microsoft. "I am pleased to see the first announced plan for implementation of the emerging industry standard. Denali has been an active participant and contributor of NVMHCI. Denali's support for NVMHCI with this platform should enable system performance and feature enhancements. It is our belief that Flash will have a significant impact to the PC and other system architectures."

The FlashPoint platform also supports wide range of flash devices from various memory vendors, including devices which conform to the specifications developed by the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Working Group, an industry organization dedicated to simplifying integration of NAND Flash memory into consumer electronics (CE) devices, computing platforms and industrial systems.

"Denali has been an active supporter of the ONFi initiative which provides a standardized NAND component interface that not only simplifies design support for a broader range of NAND components, but also eases transitions to future NAND generations," said Knut Grimsrud, ONFi chairman and Intel Fellow. "Product releases compliant with the ONFi standard, such as Denali's new Flash platform, pave the way for broad adoption of standards-based flash solutions."

The FlashPoint platform leverages Denali's proven Databahn(TM) IP technology for PCIe and NAND Flash in an advanced hardware architecture, built from the ground up for high performance and reliability. An advanced configuration infrastructure automates the process for tuning and verifying the design for application specific performance, and speeds overall deployment time.

"This high-performance PCIe-based NAND Flash platform is a natural extension of our unique expertise in memory and interface technology," said David Lin, vice president of marketing for Denali Software. "We believe our enthusiastic focus on driving the NAND Flash ecosystem through participation in standards, like ONFi and NVMHCI, gives us a distinct advantage when it comes to understanding the intricacies and bandwidth variables which affect performance as well as the subtleties of how PCIe and other technologies need to mesh in order to create a truly revolutionary PCIe to NAND Flash cache solution."

"We are constantly updating and refining our flash memory technology and roadmaps to ensure that we provide our customers with the best possible combination of features and performance to meet evolving market needs," said Robert Pierce, senior director, Flash Products at Denali Software. "FlashPoint is a great example of Denali's commitment to technology development as we have significantly reduced customer risk and increased system performance through an integrated and flexible HW/SW platform approach to PCIe-based NAND controller designs. With the rich feature set, OEMs and semiconductor firms have the flexibility to confidently select unique and differentiating features, such as performance, encryption, and array management for their system."

FlashPoint Platform Availability

The Denali FlashPoint platform is commercially available now. For more product specific info, please visit http://www.denali.com/products/platform_pcie.html.

About Denali Software

Denali Software, Inc. is a world-leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and semiconductor intellectual property (IP) for system-on-chip (SoC) design and verification. Denali delivers the industry's most trusted solutions for deploying PCI Express, NAND Flash and DDR DRAM subsystems. Developers use Denali's EDA, IP and services to reduce risk and speed time-to-market for electronic system and chip design. Denali is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and has offices around the world to serve the global electronics industry. More information about Denali, its products and services is available at http://www.denali.com.