Samsung Unveils Blazing Fast UFS 4.0 Storage To Supercharge 5G Phones And VR Headsets
When it comes to smartphone storage, it's the capacity that typically hogs the limelight. The type of storage matters too, though, and Samsung is ready to facilitate a new breed of 5G handsets and other devices with the industry's first Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 4.0 storage solution operating at twice the speed of UFS 3.1.
That translates to a whopping 23.2 gigabits per second (Gbps) per lane, bandwidth that Samsung says is "perfect for 5G smartphones requiring huge amounts of data processing." Samsung also anticipates its UFS 4.0 storage solution to be adopted in future automotive applications, as well as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets. Bonus points to Samsung for resisting the urge to mention the metaverse, a buzzword that always seems to attach itself to announcements like this one.
"By collaborating with smartphone and consumer device manufacturers globally, we are working vigorously to foster an ecosystem for UFS 4.0 to drive the market for high performance mobile storage solutions," Samsung says.
Samsung's UFS 4.0 solution employs the company's 7th generation V-NAND flash memory paired with a proprietary controller to facilitate up to 4,200 MB/s of sequential read performance and up to 2.800 MB/s of sequential write performance. Those metrics, if they hold up to real world testing, represent gains of 2X and 1.6X, respectively, compared to UFS 3.1.
"Power efficiency has also been enhanced," Samsung says. "UFS 4.0 will deliver a sequential read speed of 6.0 MB/s per mA, which is a 46 percent improvement over the previous generation so end users can get more out of their battery life."
The new storage will be offered in a range of capacities up to 1TB, and in a compact package measuring 11mm x 13mm x 1mm. So the net gain here is faster and more power efficient storage without sacrificing the push for increasingly thinner and more compact devices.
Samsung's UFS 4.0 solution has already been approved by JEDEC and will go into mass production in the third quarter of this year. That means we could conceivably seen new phones and other devices rocking UFS 4.0 storage by the end of the year.
