Tag Archive for: Memory

Apple hits the brakes on plans to use Chinese memory chips


Apple won’t use Chinese-made NAND flash memory in its forthcoming iPhone models, in an apparent response to tighter US export controls affecting the supply chain, according to a report published today by Nikkei Asia.

The company had planned to begin using memory chips made by YMTC “as early as this year,” according to the report, and had already completed a lengthy process of certifying that chipmaker’s products for use in the iPhone. YMTC is backed by the Chinese government, and while its products are slightly less sophisticated than market leaders like Samsung and Micron, it is able to offer its chips at substantially lower prices.

However, a new US government ruling meant to crack down on China-based technology companies, announced earlier this month, described YMTC and dozens of other China-based companies as “unable to be inspected,” meaning that US officials have been unable to verify YMTC’s ability to safely receive technology exports from the US in accordinace with US Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and confirm that they will not be used in ways that undermine US national security.

US cites security concerns about Chinese technology

In its ruling, the US  Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said, “The inability of BIS to determine compliance with the EAR because of a host government’s action or inaction creates a circumstance that may place an entity at significant risk of being or becoming involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

This led to Chinese companies being placed on the “entity list” of businesses barred from dealing with US firms. YTMC was further described as a “direct threat” to US chipmakers, according to a statement from the Biden administration.

The crackdown followed hard on the heels of YMTC CEO Simon Yang’s resignation. Yang had led YMTC’s development efforts in the field of 3D NAND flash memory, helping the company’s technology rapidly advance to near-parity with the market leaders.

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KIOXIA announces UFS embedded flash memory devices for a variety of mobile applications


KIOXIA America announced sampling of the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) embedded flash memory devices supporting MIPI M-PHY v5.04.

KIOXIA America UFS devices

The new lineup utilizes the company’s BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and is available in three capacities: 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. The new devices deliver high speed read and write performance and are targeted to a variety of mobile applications, including leading-edge smartphones.

The new KIOXIA devices are next-generation UFS (MIPI M-PHY 5.0), which has a theoretical interface speed of up to 23.2Gbps per lane (x2 lanes = 46.4Gpbs) in HS-GEAR5 mode. Sequential read and write performance of the 256GB device is improved by approximately 90 percent and 70 percent, respectively, over previous generation devices6.

Also, random read and write performance of the 256GB device is improved by approximately 35 percent and 60 percent, respectively, over previous generation devices. This next generation of UFS provides significant increases in performance, enabling next-generation smartphones and other products to enhance their capabilities and end user experiences in the 5G era and beyond.

“We are pleased to announce another first in UFS memory,” noted Scott Beekman, vice president, Memory Business Unit, for KIOXIA America, Inc. “This next generation of UFS provides significant increases in performance, enabling next generation smartphones and other products to enhance their capabilities and end user experiences. Moving forward, we will continue to drive these advances, maintaining our UFS memory leadership role.”

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Vulnerability Types – CompTIA Security+ SY0-501 – 1.6



Google Finds New Exploit That Alters Chip Memory


Cybercrime
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Endpoint Security
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Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Latest Rowhammer Technique Targets Design Flaws in Modern DRAM Chips

Google Finds New Exploit That Alters Chip Memory
Source: Google Security Blog

Researchers at Google have identified a new Rowhammer technique, dubbed Half-Double, which exploits design flaws in modern DRAM chips to alter their memory content.

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First discovered in 2014, Rowhammer is a DRAM vulnerability in which repeated access to one address can tamper with data stored in other addresses.

“Much like speculative execution vulnerabilities in CPUs, Rowhammer is a breach of security guarantees made by the underlying hardware. As an electrical coupling phenomenon within the silicon itself, Rowhammer allows the potential bypass of hardware and software memory protection policies. This can allow untrusted code to break out of its sandbox and take full control of the system,” the researchers at Google note.

The 2014 paper, however, discusses the DDR3, the mainstream DRAM generation at the time. In 2015, the Mountain View, California-based company’s Project Zero, which was tasked with finding zero-day vulnerabilities, released an exploit that escalates working privilege.

In response to the exploit, chip manufacturers implemented proprietary logic in their products that attempted to track frequently accessed addresses and reactively mitigate when necessary.

2014 saw the release of DDR4, which included built-in defense mechanisms, seemingly marking the end of Rowhammer.

In 2020, however, a paper on TRRespass…

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