JEDEC

JEDEC is a global industry group that develops open microelectronics standards. JEDEC initially stood for the Engineering Council of Joint Electron Systems but is now recognized as the Solid-State Science Organization of JEDEC. At present, the organization has over 3,000 voluntary members from about 300 member organizations.

JEDEC is made up of 50 committees and sub-committees focusing on microelectronic technology sectors. These committees recommend and develop open standards and, when appropriate, provide updates. All JEDEC requirements are identified on its website, and participants collaborate multiple times a year to meet the software industry's evolving needs. The board of directors votes on it after a committee recommends a norm. Before sessions, any organization that becomes a JEDEC member gets one vote on proposals.

JEDEC memory standards

The requirements of JEDEC aim to include the entire electronics market, from suppliers to customers. When specifications are established, packaging, monitoring, consistency and reliability are all considered. The criteria for JEDEC memory largely fell into three categories:

Memory Flash. Today, Flash memory devices have high performance, low-power use, high reliability and low cost. JEDEC has developed industry guidelines to cover all areas of flash memory as flash technologies expand. Solid-state drives, embedded Multimedia Card and Universal Flash Storage are the main target areas. JEDEC's JC-64 group sets specifications for embedded memory storage and removable memory cards and specifically focuses on solid-state flash processing, develops and updates specifications in this area.

The main brain. Double data rate SDRAM and synchronous DRAM are used in the JEDEC main memory specifications. With DDR5 in progress, JEDEC has specifications for two types of DDR, DDR3 and DDR4. JEDEC DDR specifications tend to provide better performance and a more user-friendly interface than conventional DRAM technologies. The JC-42 Committee for Solid State Memories establishes primary memory requirements.

Cellular memory. JEDEC has set requirements based on memory density and consistency to keep up with the development of mobile technologies. As updated in 2017, the Low-Power DDR specifications seek to improve memory speed and mobile devices' reliability. The Wide I / O specifications, published in 2014, offer high-bandwidth memory, while Wide I / O DRAM meets the industry's integration demands. The JC-42.6 Subcommittee for Low Power Memories recommends LPDDR and Large I / O requirements.

History

JEDEC was first introduced in 1958, as it remains today, with only two councils: tubes and semiconductors. JEDEC mostly worked in its early days to allocate part numbers to various machines. Its roles have developed over time to include testing methods and quality specifications that have influenced the growth of the semiconductor industry.

The primary standards on which JEDEC mainly focuses are flash memory and cell memory. The company has also established open computer memory specifications, established an electrostatic discharge symbol used worldwide on semiconductor devices, and published a manual of general concepts used in the semiconductor industry.

There was no competition in the semiconductor industry previous to the JEDEC specifications. During the 1970s, telecommunications firms and the military drove market expectations, and demands shifted again when the PC was launched in 1981. Along with PC use, the semiconductor mass-market expanded and JEDEC started to create open standards for components and memory modules of dynamic random-access memory, as well as for packaging and manufacturing processes.

In the 1990s, when military standards were transferred to consumer requirements, the car industry got interested. In 1997, JEDEC made the specifications available online for free.

In this time-period, outsourcing development implied a focus on international standards, which became a top priority for JEDEC. In 1999, JEDEC signed an agreement to make JEDEC specifications globally accessible with the International Electrotechnical Commission and the Japan Association of Electronic Industries. It was also the year that JEDEC initiated the name change to JEDEC's Solid State Technology Division. JEDEC specifications have grown over the years into the cloud, mobile computing and other technology for growth.

Benefits of JEDEC standards

JEDEC aim's is to establish universal specifications that suppliers and customers will use. Having uniform technology specifications decreases the possibility of misunderstandings and uncertainty for customers when buying a product and encourages product interchangeability.

The criteria established by JEDEC committees are meant to act as foundational building blocks for flourishing markets in technology. A general norm also allows technology companies to optimize their research and development investments.

JEDEC collaborates with other electronics industry associations, including the IPC-Connecting Electronics Companies Association, the Consumer Technologies Association, the Defence Logistics Agency, the National Semiconductor Alliance and the Automobile Engineers Society. Such organization's involvement in the process of growth and revision eliminates the likelihood of duplicated development activities and tends to foster continuity across multiple fields.

Recent standards and future

JEDEC released 18 new standards in 2016, as well as guidelines for memory modules and product manuals. The latest documents provide best practices for identifying and preventing counterfeit parts and a protocol for consumer notification that lays out protocols to notify consumers about improvements to semiconductor components or processes. JEDEC is continuing to update its specifications for Universal Flash Storage, including version 1 of its UFS card expansion.