Japan Aims to Develop Reliable SSD With Wireless Technology

Japanese government selected the “dependable wireless solid-state drive” as a new research theme of the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), a project led by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), for fiscal 2009.

The dependable wireless solid-state drive means a highly-reliable SSD that wirelessly transmits data.

The goal of the research is to realize an SSD that is highly reliable in terms of data retention time and the number of rewritable times and stable against various error factors such as loose connection, power-off while in use, water exposure and electrostatic discharge (ESD) caused by contact with human body.

To meet that goal, MEXT aims to develop a “wireless SSD” capable of wireless communication (10Gbps) and power transmission at a distance of 1mm and a host system for it. Also, the ministry plans to equip the SSD with a NAND flash memory of several terabytes.

In the CREST projects, which are allocated a large budget, researchers work together in three to five years. This time, the research is led by Ken Takeuchi, associate professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, Graduate School of Engineering of the University of Tokyo, Tadahiro Kuroda and Hiroki Ishiguro, electrical engineering professor and associate professor, respectively, at Keio University.

Takeuchi, Kuroda and Ishiguro will take charge of developing an error-correcting system (for wireless communication and memory), wireless communication technology and power transmission and analogy technologies, respectively. The research will be conducted in collaboration with major consumer electronics manufacturers and memory manufacturers.

“I hope that Japanese universities, too, will create a device based on a new concept with practical use in mind,” Takeuchi said.

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