About ONFi

Introduction

NAND flash memory, the leading non-volatile high-density memory, is becoming an increasingly important ingredient for mobile phones, consumer electronic (CE) devices, computing platforms and industrial systems. However, in the past there has been no standard to enable simple introduction of new NAND flash components into existing designs.

Currently, host systems utilizing NAND flash technology must be designed to accommodate differences between devices from a variety of vendors. Additionally, changes in each new generation of devices require further design considerations. As a result, incorporating new or updated NAND flash components into existing platforms often involves extensive hardware, firmware, and/or software changes. Implementing such changes can be extremely costly, requiring additional testing, slowing adoption and ultimately increasing time to market for new NAND flash components. Adoption of new NAND flash innovations are slowed by the existing vendor and generational incompatibilities – ONFi works to solve these incompatibilities through standardization of the NAND flash interface.

The ONFi Working Group

Recognizing the need for a common NAND interface, the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Working Group formed in May 2006, with the goal of simplifying the integration of NAND flash memory into CE devices, mobile phones and computing platforms. Today the ecosystem is comprised of NAND flash users and suppliers, including more than 70 leading technology companies. Together, these companies are working to realize two primary objectives:

Developing and maintaining a standardized NAND flash interface that will allow interoperability between NAND components and controllers
Decreasing design time and accelerating time to market for NAND-based products

Based on these objectives, the ONFi 1.0 specification was developed to enable NAND flash devices to self-describe their capabilities to host systems. This facilitates both faster integration into host platforms and the ability to add a new NAND device to an existing solution without firmware or software modifications. The specification also standardizes the NAND command set and establishes infrastructure for future evolution of NAND flash capabilities, providing flexibility for supplier-specific optimizations.

Continuing to deliver innovation the NAND industry requires, ONFi expanded on the existing standard and recently released the .9 draft of the ONFi 2.0 specification to members. ONFi 2.0 defines a high-speed NAND flash interface that can deliver speeds greater than 133 MB/second, whereas the legacy NAND interface was limited to 50 MB/second. The ONFI 2.0 specification will be published in January 2008.

ONFi also created the Block Abstracted NAND addendum specification which simplifies host controller design by relieving the host of the complexities of ECC, bad block management, and other low level NAND management tasks.

The ONFi Working Group continues to evolve the ONFi specifications to meet the needs of a rapidly growing and changing industry.



Home News Documentation ONFI 1.0 Specification Block Abstracted NAND Specification Errata Membership Contact Us	About ONFi Introduction NAND flash memory, the leading non-volatile high-density memory, is becoming an increasingly important ingredient for mobile phones, consumer electronic (CE) devices, computing platforms and industrial systems. However, in the past there has been no standard to enable simple introduction of new NAND flash components into existing designs. Currently, host systems utilizing NAND flash technology must be designed to accommodate differences between devices from a variety of vendors. Additionally, changes in each new generation of devices require further design considerations. As a result, incorporating new or updated NAND flash components into existing platforms often involves extensive hardware, firmware, and/or software changes. Implementing such changes can be extremely costly, requiring additional testing, slowing adoption and ultimately increasing time to market for new NAND flash components. Adoption of new NAND flash innovations are slowed by the existing vendor and generational incompatibilities – ONFi works to solve these incompatibilities through standardization of the NAND flash interface. The ONFi Working Group Recognizing the need for a common NAND interface, the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Working Group formed in May 2006, with the goal of simplifying the integration of NAND flash memory into CE devices, mobile phones and computing platforms. Today the ecosystem is comprised of NAND flash users and suppliers, including more than 70 leading technology companies. Together, these companies are working to realize two primary objectives: Developing and maintaining a standardized NAND flash interface that will allow interoperability between NAND components and controllers Decreasing design time and accelerating time to market for NAND-based products Based on these objectives, the ONFi 1.0 specification was developed to enable NAND flash devices to self-describe their capabilities to host systems. This facilitates both faster integration into host platforms and the ability to add a new NAND device to an existing solution without firmware or software modifications. The specification also standardizes the NAND command set and establishes infrastructure for future evolution of NAND flash capabilities, providing flexibility for supplier-specific optimizations. Continuing to deliver innovation the NAND industry requires, ONFi expanded on the existing standard and recently released the .9 draft of the ONFi 2.0 specification to members. ONFi 2.0 defines a high-speed NAND flash interface that can deliver speeds greater than 133 MB/second, whereas the legacy NAND interface was limited to 50 MB/second. The ONFI 2.0 specification will be published in January 2008. ONFi also created the Block Abstracted NAND addendum specification which simplifies host controller design by relieving the host of the complexities of ECC, bad block management, and other low level NAND management tasks. The ONFi Working Group continues to evolve the ONFi specifications to meet the needs of a rapidly growing and changing industry.