256 Mbit NOR Flash in a 16-SOIC wide-body
80 MHz Quad SPI — what it means for boot time
At 80 MHz with Quad I/O, the S25FL256SDSMFBG01 can sustain read throughput around 40 MB/s in fast-read mode. That matters when your MCU or SoC boots from external flash: a 256 Mbit image loads in under a second, compared to several seconds over a standard SPI link. The Quad I/O interface uses four I/O pins for data, so check that your host controller has a Quad SPI peripheral — many Cortex-M and RISC-V parts do. The 80 MHz clock also means the PCB trace length and signal integrity matter; keep the SPI lines short and avoid vias if possible.
No need to stockpile a last-time-buy yet — but as always, keep an eye on PCNs from Infineon.