Reasonable Embedded Storage (> 1 GB) solution with NRF chips

RE: Reasonable Embedded Storage (> 1 GB) solution with NRF chips

Yaxit — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:09:24 GMT

Mmm maybe. LCSC seems to have a line of these. They still feel esoteric to me, as no major manufacturer makes them. I would not feel comfortable basing a product on one of these tbh. Maybe an interesting option for hobby projects?

RE: Reasonable Embedded Storage (> 1 GB) solution with NRF chips

defteame — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 15:27:27 GMT

Considering IC SD cards - while yes not that popular but doesn't seem to be that esoteric?

I.e. while researching the subject encountered this one - https://www.lcsc.com/datasheet/lcsc_datasheet_2108071830_Creat-Storage-World-CSNP32GCR01-AOW_C2841139.pdf

www.lcsc.com/.../NAND-FLASH_Creat-Storage-World-CSNP32GCR01-AOW_C2841139.html

32gb of memory. Essentially nand + sd controller (therefore SPI mode available etc) in LGA-8 package, 8mm x 6.2mm x 0.75mm size. Regular reflow process etc. Seems to be perfect fit.

There seems to be other options as well:

- https://hackaday.com/2020/12/29/new-part-day-sd-nand-are-surface-mount-chips-that-work-like-an-sd-card/

- https://www.flexxon.com/products/memory-card/esd-card/

RE: Reasonable Embedded Storage (> 1 GB) solution with NRF chips

Yaxit — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 07:40:49 GMT

We are using SPI NAND :)

RE: Reasonable Embedded Storage (> 1 GB) solution with NRF chips

Ecic2002 — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 18:35:09 GMT

Hello Yaxit, I'm curious if you can share what direction your team went with this issue. I am hitting a similar wall to you. Not having NAND or EMMC support is becoming a major drawback.

RE: Reasonable Embedded Storage (> 1 GB) solution with NRF chips

Yaxit — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:02:03 GMT

I'm looking at a wearable device for medical applications, so Cloud is not an option given the use case and power budget. By inefficient I mean that we are probably leaving a lot of transfer speed on the table and therefore I assume also increased power consumption. In my case, I'm mostly concerned about the mechanical contacts for the SD card, since in a portable device I cannot cross out occasional bumps and strong vibrations, but feel free to contradict me here maybe I'm overconcerned :)

I'm looking ad STM32W microcontrollers, some of them have a memory controller and they also support wireless, although it's not as good as far as I was told by some colleagues.

RE: Reasonable Embedded Storage (> 1 GB) solution with NRF chips

Naeem Maroof — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 13:19:48 GMT

Hi Andrea,

I agree that different features/solutions are not optimized for all use-cases, and there are always tradeoffs; sometime speed, cost, support, and cost of supporting that feature.

I see people are using NOR flash for storing sensor data, though that might not be as large as in your case.
Some customers also see bit-banging as a possible/feasible solution to whatever we have. SPI NAND chips with 8 Gbit=1GB capacity are at least available.

Yes, the SD card seems to be a good choice in this scenario. What do you mean by inefficient? People have used it in production.

We do not have EMMC support. What other MCU you are considering? Do they support what you want to have? It is always about tradeoffs. I would agree mostly with what Louis has said. Is transmitting to cloud an option for your use case?

RE: Reasonable Embedded Storage (> 1 GB) solution with NRF chips

nordicator_prim3 — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 19:05:19 GMT

I think this is a pretty comprehensive assessment. As you alluded to, even hardware wise, the 1GB space is kind of a no-mans land.

I'm guessing the Nordic offerings haven't concentrated on eMMC / raw NAND since they're IoT focused and intend to constantly stream data out as opposed to needing to store large amounts?

An application I worked on needed a lot of storage (16Gb) so we were kind of forced into the SD card route and haven't found any big issues. It kind of feels hacky having an SD card when the user never needs to remove the card for any reason but they aren't that expensive and you can find some with built-in wear leveling and other protection which is nice. I haven't compared power use of SD cards to the other tech you mentioned since my application wasn't very restrictive on power - is that what you meant by "inefficient"?

Cheers