Sometimes, though, flash enhancements don't have to push the bleeding edge of technology to aid developers. This trend leads directly to initiatives such as computational storage efforts where flash plays a leading role in feeding the voracious appetite for data of machine learning algorithms. Emerging flash-based technologies are going beyond storage to integrate capabilities designed to handle more of the processing load for data analysis, cloud interaction, and other services. Now, developers can use execute-in-place (XIP) NOR flash devices to run code directly from flash, reducing random-access memory (RAM) requirements and eliminating the need to copy code from non-volatile memory to RAM.īesides improvements in performance characteristics, flash devices keep getting smarter. In the meantime, the industry continues to bring out new flash technologies that push the envelope for memory density, power, access bandwidth, and performance. If it runs code, chances are there's NOR flash memory in it, thanks to NOR technology's speedy random access, high reliability, and low power consumption. Flash memory is part of nearly every new design for anything from battery-powered wearables to larger, line powered electronic systems.
