UFS 4.0 Has 2,800MB/Second Write Speeds

Samsung claims to have created the industry’s highest performing Universal Flash Storage (UFS). With read speeds of up to 4,200MB/s and write speeds of up to 2,800MB/s, UFS 4.0 is twice as fast as the previous generation.

Not only is UFS 4.0 faster than previous generations, but Samsung claims it also consumes less power. As a result, the company claims that it will be at the heart of future mobile storage solutions, having a dramatic impact on smartphone performance as well as having a significant impact on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) hardware.

According to Samsung, UFS 4.0 comes in a small package that measures 11mm by 13mm by 1mm and can support capacities of up to 1TB. This 1 TB has a sequential read speed of 6 MB/s per mA, a 46 percent improvement over the previous generation’s power consumption.

“UFS 4.0 offers up to 23.2Gbps per lane, which is double that of the previous UFS 3.1,” Samsung claims. “That much bandwidth is ideal for 5G smartphones, which require massive amounts of data processing, and it is also expected to be used in future automotive applications, AR, and VR.”

The performance is also impressive, with a sequential read speed of up to 4,200MB/s and a sequential write speed of up to 2,800MB/s promised. The previous generation, UFS 3.1, could promise write speeds of up to 1,200 MB/s. More than doubling the previous generation’s speed while using nearly half the power is likely to have a significant positive impact on device performance.

JEDEC, the Solid State Technology Association, an independent semiconductor engineering trade organization and standardization body, has approved the UFS 4.0 standard specification. Samsung says mass production of UFS 4.0 storage will begin in the third quarter of 2022, and that it is collaborating with smartphone and consumer device manufacturers from around the world to create an ecosystem of support for UFS 4.0 to make market adoption easier and faster.

Micron announced the industry’s first 3D NAND memory device with 232 layers on Thursday. The company intends to use its new 232-layer 3D NAND products for a variety of applications, including solid-state drives, and expects to begin mass production of such chips in late 2022.

Micron’s 232-layer 3D NAND device has a raw capacity of 1Tb and a 3D TLC architecture (128GB). The chip is based on Micron’s CMOS under array (CuA) architecture and stacks two arrays of 3D NAND on top of each other using the NAND string stacking technique.

The CuA design, combined with 232 layers of NAND, will significantly reduce the die size of Micron’s 1Tb 3D TLC NAND memory, allowing Micron to price devices featuring these chips more aggressively or simply increase its margins.

Micron did not specify I/O speeds or the number of planes in its new 232L 3D TLC NAND IC, but it did state that the new memory will outperform existing 3D NAND devices, which will be especially useful for next-generation SSDs with a PCIe 5.0 interface.

Speaking of SSDs, Micron’s executive vice president of technology and products, Scott DeBoer, stated that the company has worked closely with developers of in-house and third-party NAND controllers (for SSDs and other NAND-based storage devices) to ensure proper support for the new type of memory (and make sure those upcoming drives end up in our best SSDs list).

“We optimized [232-layer 3D NAND] technology around what we need to make the world’s fastest managed NAND and both datacenter and client SSD products,” said DeBoer. “The combination of controllers, both internal and external, has been a strong element of our vertical product integration focus to ensure that we have optimized NAND and controller technology for what we need to deliver future leadership products.”

Among the benefits of its 232-layer 3D TLC NAND are Micron mentioned lower power consumption compared to previous-generation nodes, which will be another advantage given Micron’s historical focus on mobile applications and relationships with device makers.

Given that Micron will begin production of 232-layer 3D TLC NAND devices in late calendar 2022, we can expect SSDs powered by the new memory to arrive in 2023.