Universal Flash Storage has become hugely popular among Android smartphones. Not too long ago, UFS was only found in flagships and higher-end mid-range phones. But as the technology has become cheaper, it has largely replaced eMMC across budget and affordable mid-range smartphones as the flash storage of choice. UFS 3.1 was announced in 2020 and is the fastest storage solution currently available to Android smartphones. But now it’s time for an upgrade.
On Tuesday, Samsung Semiconductor officially announced UFS 4.0, the next iteration of Universal Flash Storage. UFS 4.0 promises big performance improvements over its predecessors, UFS 3.0/3.1. For one, the new standard offers a speed of up to 23.2Gbps per lane. That’s twice as fast compared to UFS 3.1’s 11.6Gbps speed.
BREAKING: Samsung has developed the industry’s highest performing Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 4.0 storage solution, which has received JEDEC® board of director approval. What is UFS 4.0 and what does it mean for the future of storage? Read on to learn more. pic.twitter.com/4Wxdu0J2PD
— Samsung Semiconductor (@SamsungDSGlobal) May 3, 2022
Read and write performance also see a big boost, with Samsung promising sequential read speeds of up to 4,200 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 2,800 MB/s. This is made possible thanks to Samsung’s 7th Gen V-NAND and a proprietary controller. At the same time, UFS 4.0 is also much more power-efficient, offering 46% improved power efficiency over the previous standard.
UFS 4.0 is based on the newest JEDEC standard specification, and while it’s primarily aimed at smartphones, it’s also expected to be adopted by AR, VR, and automotive applications.
UFS 4.0 chips will come in even compact packages and will be available in multiple storage capacities up to 1TB. Samsung says UFS 4.0 will enter mass production in Q3 2022. That means we can expect the first batch of smartphones with UFS 4.0 storage to hit the market later this year or early 2023.
Source: Samsung Semiconductor (via Twitter)