M-Systems and Emblaze Semiconductor cooperate to deliver an advanced on-board multimedia memory solution to a wide range of mobile devices.

M-Systems (Nasdaq:FLSH) and Emblaze Semiconductor, an Emblaze Group company (LSE:BLZ) and a leading provider of mobile multimedia and application ICs, has announced that the companies are cooperating to deliver an advanced on-board multimedia memory solution to a wide range of mobile devices, including mobile feature phones and PDAs.

As part of this cooperation, M-Systems' Mobile DiskOnChip flash disk product has been included on board Emblaze Semiconductor's ER452x reference platforms. As the cornerstone multimedia memory solution, Mobile DiskOnChip supplements the highly advanced application processor by providing the on-board memory necessary for storage of the operating system (OS), multimedia content and multiple applications.

The ER4525 enhanced mobile multimedia reference platform with Mobile DiskOnChip is displayed at the 3GSM World Congress by M-Systems (booth E48) and Emblaze Semiconductor (suite 01.10, hall 2).

"We are happy to bring the M-Systems expertise in flash-based memory solutions to our multimedia offering," said Lior Fite, vice president of marketing, Emblaze Semiconductor. "We chose to integrate DiskOnChip on board our reference platforms to allow our customers to benefit from its high performance, high capacity and optimized reliability."

Emblaze Semiconductor's ER452x line of multimedia-centric application processors provides an optimal architecture for a variety of mobile multimedia applications such as mobile feature phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other wireless devices. It addresses the intensive processing power challenges of today's 2.5G and 3G terminals, enabling superior quality, high performance audio, video, and graphics processing at low power consumption and small form factor.

M-Systems' Mobile DiskOnChip further supports these capabilities by providing the storage capacity, data reliability and system performance to enable applications to run smoothly while minimizing platform real estate and bill of materials. The family of ER452x reference platforms with Emblaze Semiconductor's processor and M-Systems Mobile DiskOnChip is the basis for a number of joint design wins in leading feature phones.

"We are delighted to partner with Emblaze," said David Tolub, vice president and co-manager of M-Systems' DiskOnChip business unit. "The current trend in multimedia-rich devices demands more and more advanced capabilities. Emblaze's ER452x product line offers an exciting range of multimedia applications for mobile users that is supported well by the power of Mobile DiskOnChip."

Mobile DiskOnChip, selected by EDN, the premier design magazine of the electronics industry, as one of the top 100 products of 2003, is a high-capacity NAND-based nonvolatile memory (NVM) solution. It is targeted specifically for multimedia mobile handsets and provides phone manufacturers with advanced flash technology. Mobile DiskOnChip features high performance and reliability and is equipped with a built-in boot block enabling it to completely replace legacy NOR devices within a smaller physical space and decrease overall expenditure on memory. Within feature rich handsets, Mobile DiskOnChip can be used to store both the operating system (OS) and application code, as well as user data such as still pictures, video content, personal information manager (PIM) content, games and music.

Currently, four out of the five leading handset manufacturers have chosen to integrate the high-capacity, high-density Mobile DiskOnChip within their products.