AutoPartsAsia | OCTOBER 2017 | 23ago each cell could only store one bit;
it was called single level cell (SLC).
Then came two bits per cell and now
it is three per cell, which is the best
cost density available. Density is not a
major issue in automotive - the focus
is on fast response and reliability.
That is why our automotive products
still use MLC flash or two bits per cell
flash.
Q: Can this cater to the demands
of modern vehicles that upload up
to one Giga bits per minute?
A: Yes, in fact we have products
designed using MLC flash for
streaming video applications. One of
our big markets is video surveillance.
In video surveillance we have the local
storage cards in the IP camera, which
store streaming video round the clock;
we have that experience and ability.
Q: With increasing diversity in
new vehicle design, shorter time
to market, regulatory pressures,
and demand for cost efficiencies,
the challenges seem to be ever-
increasing. What do you have to
say on this?
A: Shorter cycle time in the auto
industry is good for us as the bulk of
flash is still consumed in Smartphone
manufacturing. Then there is the
laptop business, which is replacing
hard drives with solid state drives.
In both these industries cycle time
is faster than the auto industry. In
Smartphone, launch cycle time,
including design, is six months to
one year; companies replace their
models at least once a year. The
laptop’s lifetime is three years, but
every year the industry expects better
density and better price points from
us. Automotive is 18 months at the
least, but they expect the product
to be available for five years. So the
company built on the retail grade flash
and retail consumer market, followed
by Smart Phone and laptop, will find
it challenging to meet the automotive
cycle time and longevity requirements.
If that starts shrinking, it is good for
us.We have announced products for
automotives that will be available till- We are now geared up to meet
the automotive industry’s longevity
and availability cycles; if it shortens, it
is good for us.
Q: The development of
autonomous vehicles will require
OEMs and suppliers to adopttest processors more familiar
to software developers than
engineers; do you see a sweet
spot in this?
A: Fundamentally, we are a hardware
company but a lot of software goes
into our products. So we have
software tools and software testing
methodologies inside. For us, more
than software versus hardware, it
is the full system that we supply to
the customer. When we design and
qualify a flash, it has to meet a certain
use case; it is made for a particular
application.For example, use case in a camera
is different from mobile, use case in
automotive is different from industrial,
and use case in a set-top box is
completely different, where you
continuously record videos as also
read and write videos. So different
types of flashes are used for different
read and erase cycles; it is called
endurance. The flash should not run
out of its endurance life, it should
support the throughput with the
required write and erase speed. We
understand this and take care.Q: Still many OEMs are not clear
about how it is going to be. As
a company that designs and
develops the storage device, what
is your goal?
A: Over the last couple of years, there
has been a shift from local storage
to cloud storage. Next generation
car OEMs look for a balance
between local and cloud storage. It
is absolutely necessary to have local
storage, because it is the fastest
storage available; the latency is very
low but performance is very high.
Now, real time data is needed in local
storage. The archival data that OEMs
need to do any analytics can go on
the cloud. WDC is catering to both