Author Topic: To eMMC or not to eMMC, that is the question (or, sourcing eMMC)  (Read 1042 times)

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Offline msatTopic starter

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Hey guys,

I want to start off with a little background: I'm working on a solo project that's intended for commercialization, which, if I'm lucky might be 10k+ units per year. I'm in need of a mass storage solution, somewhere in the range of 4-16GB. I've sort of been planning on using a non-user accessible uSD in a card socket, but vertical dimensions on one side of my board are very limited, and I have very little room to spare, so along with a few other reasons, I'm back to at least considering eMMC.

Now, I've considered eMMC before but the market for these seems very opaque to me. In my design, I've tried to be very cognizant of the availability of each part I've used, judging either by distributor stock, or when possible, the manufacturer's own listed inventory. Every time I've looked in the past at eMMC, distributors show very few units, and the manufacturers don't publicly list them at all.

So my question is this: Has anyone here used these in reasonable quantity in their own projects? Are these things even available to non-megacorps, and if so, without insane lead times? Is the only option to speak with the mfg's sales rep? This all seems so mysterious to me, and has put me off in the past (not to mention the annoying BGA package)

Cheeers
 

Offline langwadt

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Re: To eMMC or not to eMMC, that is the question (or, sourcing eMMC)
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2022, 11:18:55 am »
Hey guys,

I want to start off with a little background: I'm working on a solo project that's intended for commercialization, which, if I'm lucky might be 10k+ units per year. I'm in need of a mass storage solution, somewhere in the range of 4-16GB. I've sort of been planning on using a non-user accessible uSD in a card socket, but vertical dimensions on one side of my board are very limited, and I have very little room to spare, so along with a few other reasons, I'm back to at least considering eMMC.

Now, I've considered eMMC before but the market for these seems very opaque to me. In my design, I've tried to be very cognizant of the availability of each part I've used, judging either by distributor stock, or when possible, the manufacturer's own listed inventory. Every time I've looked in the past at eMMC, distributors show very few units, and the manufacturers don't publicly list them at all.

So my question is this: Has anyone here used these in reasonable quantity in their own projects? Are these things even available to non-megacorps, and if so, without insane lead times? Is the only option to speak with the mfg's sales rep? This all seems so mysterious to me, and has put me off in the past (not to mention the annoying BGA package)

Cheeers

thousand available, https://lcsc.com/products/eMMC_11267.html
 

Offline msatTopic starter

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Re: To eMMC or not to eMMC, that is the question (or, sourcing eMMC)
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2022, 11:37:04 am »
I had already checked LCSC, and honestly, I'm not comfortable choosing a part with less than 10k in stock unless I know I can get the sorts of quantities I need with reasonable lead times.
 

Offline langwadt

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Re: To eMMC or not to eMMC, that is the question (or, sourcing eMMC)
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2022, 09:02:52 pm »
I had already checked LCSC, and honestly, I'm not comfortable choosing a part with less than 10k in stock unless I know I can get the sorts of quantities I need with reasonable lead times.

22000 in stock
https://www.mouser.dk/ProductDetail/SkyHigh-Memory/S40FC004C1B1C00000?qs=OlC7AqGiEDmrnKkBUvMd0Q%3D%3D

isn't all eMMC in the same package compatible?
 

Offline glenenglish

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Re: To eMMC or not to eMMC, that is the question (or, sourcing eMMC)
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2022, 11:33:58 pm »
it is not that hard to buy. just go to an authorized distributor. I have about 90 left in 8GB, 1mm pitch.... ISSI.

and eMMC is fantastic to work with. all the error correction etc etuff is sorted for you. and you get 1.8V native fast interfaces

-glen
 

Offline msatTopic starter

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Re: To eMMC or not to eMMC, that is the question (or, sourcing eMMC)
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2022, 10:40:42 am »
I had already checked LCSC, and honestly, I'm not comfortable choosing a part with less than 10k in stock unless I know I can get the sorts of quantities I need with reasonable lead times.

22000 in stock
https://www.mouser.dk/ProductDetail/SkyHigh-Memory/S40FC004C1B1C00000?qs=OlC7AqGiEDmrnKkBUvMd0Q%3D%3D

isn't all eMMC in the same package compatible?

Ok. Besides LCSC, I haven't checked the inventories of overseas distributors, but it still makes me wonder why US inventory of these parts has seemed so slim every time I checked in the past. In the case of Digikey, Kingston parts are listed as coming directly from the manufacturer, and their indicated stock is underwhelming.

As for pin compatibility for a given package: to my understanding, it's mostly true. The critical pins are standardized, but there can also be vendor-defined pins, so you have to put a little care into your escape routing and not go thinking that you can route across the balls just because they're not defined in the eMMC standard itself.
 


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