Universal Flash Storage 4.0 is a new standard that like PCIe Gen 5 SSDs is on the off-ramp. The organization responsible for the standard, JEDEC, has just announced an update as a final review, giving way to its arrival.
The new standard is intended to improve the performance and capacity of the internal storage of smartphones and other mobile devices such as tablets, cameras, wearables, virtual reality viewers, drones or portable consoles.
A huge field of use for a standard that has put the performance section in the spotlight to get closer to what SSDs offer in personal computers. To do this, it has increased the bandwidth to 23.2 Gbps per lane (double that of the previous UFS 3.1 standard) to achieve sequential read speeds of up to 6.0 MB/s per mA. This should mean greater energy efficiency and thus greater autonomy of the devices that use it.
Universal Flash Storage 4.0: more performance
The new standard will significantly improve the performance and capacity of the current version, UFS 3.1. The goal will be “provide new experiences” in tasks that require large amounts of data processing, high-resolution images, mobile games, 5G devices, future automotive applications or next-generation AR and VR headsets.
UFS 4 will offer data transfer speeds of up to 4,200MB/s and 2,800MB/s in sequential read/write modes. A significant improvement over the 2,100/1,200 MB/s of the current UFS 3.1. Another notable advantage is that while it doubles the performance, it consumes 46% less energy, important considering the mobile devices that will use it.
Additionally, UFS 4 has a maximum bandwidth of up to 23.2 Gbps per lane, also double the speed of UFS 3.1, and atSupporting dual-way transmission, it will allow simultaneous read and write operations. This enhancement benefits 5G smartphones, automotive applications, and AR/VR-enabled devices that require heavy data throughput.
It will also be important improved storage capacity, doubling that of the current standard to reach the Tbyte barrier, and incidentally maintaining the same maximum chip size: 11 x 13 x 1 mm. This would make it unnecessary to use memory cards such as microSD, although the use of this goes beyond mass storage.
Samsung announced a few months ago that it would begin mass production of chips under this standard in the third quarter of 2022, so it is likely that it will release them in the top of the range of its next generation of mobiles, the Galaxy S23. Xiaomi, Huawei, Google, Apple, Oppo and other mobile manufacturers are likely to adopt this storage standard next year.
