Toshiba Corporation’s Semiconductor & Storage Products Company today announced the launch of JEDEC eMMC Version 5.1[1] compliant embedded NAND flash memory products supporting “command queuing” and “secure write protection”. The new products integrate NAND chips fabricated with 15nm process technology and are designed for application in a wide range of digital consumer products, including smartphones, tablets and wearable devices. Sample shipment of the 16GB and 64GB products start today, with 32GB and 128GB products to follow.

The new products integrate NAND chips fabricated with Toshiba's cutting-edge 15nm generation process technology with a controller to manage basic control functions for NAND applications in a single package. In October 2014, Toshiba launched the industry’s first[2]eMMC products supporting all mandatory features of JEDEC eMMC Version 5.1, which was officially issued by JEDEC on February 24, 2015. The new additions to the line-up support two optional features of eMMC Version 5.1, “command queuing” and “secure write protection”.

The “command queuing feature” allows users to process multiple tasks generated by the user’s issue of multiple commands, in the order of the user’s preference, by initially storing the tasks in a waiting queue. It improves random read performance speed by approximately 30% at maximum[3] compared to Toshiba existing products without the “command queuing feature”. It effectively improves the user experience when simultaneously executing multiple applications on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

The “secure write protection feature” expands the conventional write protect feature and protects the user’s important data stored in an assigned area from being overwritten or erased by unauthenticated users.

Demand continues to grow for NAND flash memory that can support applications such as smartphones and tablets. This includes embedded memories with a controller, which minimize development requirements and ease integration into system designs. Toshiba is meeting this demand by reinforcing its line-up of high performance and high density memory products and will continue to take leadership in the market.