Flash memory is a commonly used type of non-volatile memory in widespread use as mass storage for consumer electronics, such as digital cameras and portable digital music players for example. Such flash memory take the form of memory cards or USB type memory sticks, each having at least one memory device and a memory controller formed therein. Another mass storage application is solid state drives (SSD) which can be used as replacements for computer hard disk drives. These solid state drives can be used in computer workstations, networks, and for virtually any application in which large amounts of data need to be stored. Cloud computing is an application where user data is stored in a virtual location in the Internet, as opposed to locally in a workstation or other local area network (LAN). It should be appreciated that progressively increasing amounts of mass storage are required as more and more users adopt cloud computing for storing their data.
Non-volatile mass storage can take the form of packaged memory devices mounted to printed circuit boards (PCB) having a connector interface for insertion into a complementary socket of a host system. These are also known as memory modules. These PCB's are shaped in size for receiving any number of memory devices, where the surface area of the PCB ultimately determines the total number of memory devices which can be mounted to the PCB, thereby determining the overall storage capacity of the memory module. A commonly known example of such memory modules are DRAM memory modules for use in a host system, such as a laptop or personal computer.
The problem with such memory modules is that they have a fixed memory storage capacity. Therefore if more memory storage is required, additional modules are added to the host system, provided of course the host system is configured to accept additional memory modules. Typically though, the existing memory module is replaced with a new memory module having an increased storage capacity. Memory module manufacturers are therefore faced with producing different memory modules, each having different storage capacities, in order to provide cost effective solutions for different users and systems. This problem is compounded by the fact that the memory device manufacturers continue to develop semiconductor memories with ever increasing densities, and/or techniques for increasing the number of memory devices within each memory package. Therefore, the memory module manufacturer is faced with the costs for developing new memory modules, which are ultimately passed to the consumer.
Furthermore, current non-volatile memory module architectures face a practical limit to the number of memory devices which can be connected to the PCB, regardless of the size of the PCB. Therefore, current non-volatile memory module architectures may not meet the increasing storage requirement demands of users who may wish to store their large multi-media files, such as, for example, audio and video files.