New Industry Products

AgigA Tech Unveils Family of Battery-Free Energy Modules For Critical Data Back-Up During Power Loss

August 17, 2010 by Jeff Shepard

AgigA Tech Inc., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. introduced a new battery-free intelligent power subsystem that prevents the loss of critical data due to a power interruption. The PowerGEM™ (Green Energy Module) power subsystem uses ultracapacitors (or "ultracaps") to provide temporary power in the event of a system power loss.

The PowerGEM modules allow designers to avoid problems of battery-powered energy sources, including environmental impact, increased design complexity, maintenance and conditioning, short operating life, and a high total cost of ownership. PowerGEM, when paired with an AGIGARAM™ memory module, provides a complete secure and reliable non-volatile memory subsystem for mission critical data back-up.

In a related announcement, AgigA Tech recently introduced the industry’s highest-speed and highest-density DDR3 solutions, expanding the AGIGARAM family. The solutions range from 1 to 8 GB.

"Batteries are harmful to the environment and require maintenance and conditioning, which makes the total cost of ownership high," said Ron Sartore, CEO of AgigA Tech. "AgigA Tech’s unique ultracap-based PowerGEM modules enable system designers to avoid the many drawbacks of battery-backed memory solutions."

When used as a write cache in enterprise-class applications, AGIGARAM provides a performance-boosting building block while guarding against power failures and data loss. In addition to providing power, PowerGEM manages the charging/discharging, cycling, wear-monitoring and other module details to insure long life and high reliability. The entire AGIGARAM Non-Volatile System (NVS) implements the AGIGASAFE™ control protocol, a simple-to-use host-controlled I2C programming interface developed by AgigA Tech that ensures safe, reliable, secure operation at the system level. This protocol allows fine control over internal system functions such as managing the NAND Flash while providing precise health monitoring and tracking. The complex system-readiness system has also been reduced to a single "Good To Go" (or GTG) signal.

The AGIGA900x family of PowerGEM modules are currently production ready with samples available to qualified customers.