The companies, which formed the ONFI (Open NAND Flash Interface) Working Group back in May 2006, have developed the ONFI 1.0 specification. This open standard defines NAND device behavior, command and register sets, pin-out, electrical parameters and packaging and provides a mechanism for NAND devices to identify themselves to a system.

"The ONFI 1.0 specification is the first industry standard for the chip-level NAND Flash interface," said Knut Grimsrud, chairman of ONFI and an Intel Fellow, in a statement. "Delivering the ratified specification just three quarters after the formation of the group is an exceptional accomplishment by the team. Building on this success, the ONFI group is already pursuing next-generation development efforts to help enable Flash in additional applications and market segments."

The self-describe capability extends the range of NAND flash memory components that applications can accommodate and allow new flash memories to be supported with minimal software changes, the group said. The specification is now available at http://onfi.org/specification.asp.

The technical workgroups within ONFI next plan to focus on increasing the bandwidth of flash memory interfaces, while seeking to simplify host controller design by providing a block abstraction capability — enabling the use of an even wider range of NAND flash components in many applications.

In addition, ONFI plans to define a flash memory module, including a tailored module connector which will enable an industry standard, pluggable NAND module similar to a DRAM module used in computing platforms. This next-generation specification is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2007.

The ONFI Working Group formed in May 2006 and has 39 members. Founding companies include Hynix Semiconductor, Intel Corp., Micron Technology Inc., Phison Electronics Corp., Sony Corp. and STMicroelectronics NV.