Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it is increasing the production volume of its 8-gigabyte (GB) High Bandwidth Memory-2 (HBM2) to meet growing market needs across a wide range of applications including artificial intelligence, HPC (high-performance computing), advanced graphics, network systems and enterprise servers.

“By increasing production of the industry’s only 8GB HBM2 solution now available, we are aiming to ensure that global IT system manufacturers have sufficient supply for timely development of new and upgraded systems,” said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president, Memory Sales & Marketing team at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to deliver more advanced HBM2 line-ups, while closely cooperating with our global IT customers.”

Samsung’s 8GB HBM2 delivers the highest level of HBM2 performance, reliability and energy efficiency in the industry, underscoring the company’s commitment to DRAM innovation. Among the HBM2 and TSV (Through Silicon Via) technologies that were utilized for the latest DRAM solution, more than 850 of them have been submitted for patents or already patented.

The 8GB HBM2 consists of eight 8-gigabit (Gb) HBM2 dies and a buffer die at the bottom of the stack, which are all vertically interconnected by TSVs and microbumps. With each die containing over 5,000 TSVs, a single Samsung 8GB HBM2 package has over 40,000 TSVs. The utilization of so many TSVs, including spares, ensures high performance, by enabling data paths to be switched to different TSVs when a delay in data transmission occurs. The HBM2 is also designed to prevent overheating beyond certain temperature to guarantee high reliability.

First introduced in June 2016, the HBM2 boasts a 256GB/s data transmission bandwidth, offering more than an eight-fold increase over a 32GB/s GDDR5 DRAM chip. With capacity double that of 4GB HBM2, the 8GB solution contributes greatly to improving system performance and energy efficiency, offering ideal upgrades to data-intensive, high-end computing applications that deal with machine learning, parallel computing and graphics rendering.

In meeting increasing market demand, Samsung anticipates that its volume production of the 8GB HBM2 will cover more than 50 percent of its HBM2 production by the first half of next year.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today unveiled the industry’s first removable memory cards based on the JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Extension Standard*, for use in high-resolution mobile shooting devices such as DSLRs, 3D VR cameras, action cams and drones. Coming in a wide range of storage capacities including 256, 128, 64 and 32 gigabyte (GB), Samsung’s UFS cards are expected to bring a significant performance boost to the external memory storage market, allowing much more satisfying multimedia experiences.

“Our new 256GB UFS card will provide an ideal user experience for digitally-minded consumers and lead the industry in establishing the most competitive memory card solution,” said Jung-bae Lee, senior vice president, Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering, Samsung Electronics “By launching our new high-capacity, high-performance UFS card line-up, we are changing the growth paradigm of the memory card market to prioritize performance and user convenience above all.”

Samsung’s new 256GB UFS removable memory card ─ simply referred to as the UFS card will provide greatly improved user experiences, especially in high-resolution 3D gaming and high-resolution movie playback. It provides more than five times faster sequential read performance compared to that of a typical microSD card, reading sequentially at 530 megabytes per second (MB/s) which is similar to the sequential read speed of the most widely used SATA SSDs. With this UFS card, consumers have the ability to read a 5GB, Full-HD movie in approximately 10 seconds, compared to a typical UHS-1 microSD card, which would take over 50 seconds with 95MB/s of sequential reading speed. Also, at a random read rate of 40,000 IOPS, the 256GB card delivers more than 20 times higher random read performance compared to a typical microSD, which offers approximately 1,800 IOPS.

When it comes to writing, the new 256GB UFS card processes 35,000 random IOPS, which is 350 times higher than the 100 IOPs of a typical microSD card, and attains a 170MB/s sequential write speed, almost doubling the top-end microSD card speed. With these substantial performance improvements, the new 256GB UFS card significantly reduces multimedia data downloading time, photo thumbnail loading time and buffer clearing time in burst shooting mode, which, collectively, can be particularly beneficial to DSLR camera users. To shoot 24 large/extra fine JPEG photographs (1,120 megabyte (MB)-equivalent) continuously with a high-end DSLR camera, the 256GB UFS card takes less than seven seconds, compared to a UHS-1 microSD card which typically takes about 32 seconds, at 35MB/s.

To achieve the highest performance and most power-efficient data transport, the UFS card supports multiple commands with command queuing features and enables simultaneous reading and writing through the use of separately dedicated paths, doubling throughput.

As the leading memory storage provider, Samsung has been aggressive in preparing UFS solutions for the marketplace, while contributing to JEDEC standardization of the Universal Flash Storage 2.0 specification in September 2013 and the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Extension standard in March 2016. Following its introduction of the industry-first 128GB embedded UFS chip in January 2015, the company successfully launched a 256GB embedded UFS memory for high-end mobile devices in February of this year. As of earlier this month, Samsung also completed the Universal Flash Storage Association** (UFSA)’s certification program that evaluates electrical and functional specifications for compatibility of a UFS card, and Samsung’s new UFS card products were approved as UFSA-certified UFS cards with the right to use the official UFS logo for the first time in the industry.

*Samsung has taken a leading role in standardization of JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Standard, and filed seven design patent applications to USPTO (US Patent and Trade Office) which the company disclosed to all JEDEC members under the RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing) condition that allows manufacturers to develop UFS card products without royalty. Royalty payment usually encompasses a significant portion of other types of removable card manufacturing. For more information, please visit http://www.jedec.org/news/pressreleases/jedec-publishes-universal-flash-storage-ufs-removable-card-standard/

**UFSA announced the release of a Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Compliance Test Matrix (CTM) in April, 2016. For more information, please visit https://ufsa.org/

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., an expert provider of advanced memory solutions for more than three decades, today announced worldwide availability of the 750 EVO solid state drive (SSD) in 120GB, 250GB and an all new 500GB capacity. The 750 EVO SSDs provide mainstream consumers and PC builders with an efficient migration path from hard disk drives (HDDs) or slow performing entry-level SSDs to a faster and more reliable storage solution for every day computer use.

“Samsung is committed to constantly evolving and providing high-quality memory solutions that fit general consumer needs,” said Un-Soo Kim, Senior Vice President of Branded Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “We have seen high consumer demand for our 750 EVO in the 120GB and 250GB capacities, which have been available in select emerging markets since last year. We want to meet the consumers’ expectation who seek a reliable memory solution to extend the longevity of their existing computers in an easy and effective way. By adding the 500GB version to the current 750 EVO line-up and supplying the drives to more regions, consumers who need high data consumption will be better served.”

Extending Samsung’s heritage of offering cutting-edge memory solutions, the 750 EVO SSDs leverage Samsung’s advanced NAND flash technology and are packed with the company’s proprietary TurboWrite, Dynamic Thermal Guard protection and RAPID Mode features that together contribute to their high performance. Also equipped with Samsung’s powerful MGX controller, the 750 EVO SSDs provide sequential read and write speeds of up to 540MB/s and 520MB/s respectively, when TurboWrite is used.

The 750 EVO line-up is an ideal PC upgrade option that will turbo-charge users’ computing and multi-tasking needs at their home, school and office.  With Samsung Data Migration and Magician software, upgrading to the 750 EVO from existing storage device is quick and easy. The SSD also features reliable AES 256-bit hardware encryption to ensure stored data remain safe and secure. Unlike an HDD, the 750 EVO SSD has no moving parts, so consumers do not need to worry about the wear and tear on moving parts that can result in lost or corrupted data.

Samsung will offer the new 750 EVO 500GB to consumers with a three-year limited warranty or 100 terabytes written (TBW) in more than 50 countries and areas, including the USA, Europe, China, Korea, and other regions starting in early June. The 750 EVO 500GB’s MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) is $149.99. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com/SSD.

Samsung Electronics, an expert provider of advanced memory solutions, today unveiled its newest memory card globally – the EVO Plus 256GB microSD card. The EVO Plus 256GB offers the highest capacity for a microSD card in its class, delivering fast speeds and an expanded memory storage for use in premium smartphones and tablets, 360-degree video recorders, action cameras, and drones. Consumers can now record up to 12 hours of 4K UHD video or 33 hours of Full HD video on their mobile device or action camera without needing to change or replace the memory card, allowing them to experience more and worry less about running out of memory.

The EVO Plus 256GB raises the bar for capacity and performance of microSD cards thanks to Samsung’s advanced V-NAND technology, offering high read and write speeds of up to 95MB/s and 90MB/s, respectively. This level of performance will provide general consumers and professionals with superb user convenience for storing heavy-loaded, high-resolution photography and 4K video recording, as well as graphic intensive multimedia like virtual reality (VR) and gaming.

“With the upward trend of consumers using high-performance, high-capacity mobile devices, our new, V-NAND-based 256GB microSD card solution allows us to deliver the memory card consumers have been craving,” said Un-Soo Kim, Senior Vice President of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “Our EVO Plus 256GB microSD card, will provide consumers with large capacity, and high read and write speeds. We are excited to offer our customers convenient and seamless multimedia experiences when they access, store and share all of the content they create and capture.”

The EVO Plus 256GB microSD card provides advanced protection, capacity, and performance with long-term reliability needed to get the most out of today’s electronics, making it an ideal companion for high-end smartphones and tablets with a microSD slot, even in the most extreme conditions.

Samsung will offer the EVO Plus 256GB microSD card with a limited 10-year warranty in more than 50 countries, including the USA, Europe, China, and other regions starting in June 2016 for $249.99 (Manufacturer’s suggested retail price).

Key Features and Specifications

¹ The above results are from internal tests with the average-actual data store capacity (93.1% of the labeled capacity). The results may vary based on testing conditions and host devices.

• 4032×3024 12MP
• 3840×2160 (30 fps) 4K UHD
• 1920×1080 Full HD (30fps)
• 1280×720 HD
• Average file size : 10.7MB

The storage capacity stated in the product specifications may be lower than the capacity reported by users’ device due to difference in measurement standards.

² Operating temperatures of -25°C to 85°C (-13°F to 185°F), non-operating temperatures of -40°C to 85°C (-40°F to 185°F). Withstands standard airport x-ray machines and the magnetic field equivalent of a high-field MRI scanner.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced that it is now mass producing the industry’s first 256-gigabyte (GB) embedded memory based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard, for next-generation high-end mobile devices. The newly introduced embedded memory features outstanding performance for mobile devices that exceeds that of a typical SATA-based SSD for PCs.

“By providing high-density UFS memory that is nearly twice as fast as a SATA SSD for PCs, we will contribute to a paradigm shift within the mobile data storage market,” said Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice President, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics. “We are determined to push the competitive edge in premium storage line-ups – OEM NVMe SSDs, external SSDs, and UFS – by moving aggressively to enhance performance and capacity in all three markets.”

The new Samsung UFS memory satisfies needs for ultra-fast speed, large data capacity and compact chip size in high-end smartphones. It is based on the company’s most advanced V-NAND flash memory chips and a specially-designed high-performance controller. The UFS memory handles up to 45,000 and 40,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reading and writing respectively, over two times faster than the 19,000 and 14,000 IOPS of the previous generation of UFS memory.

For sequential reading, the 256GB UFS takes advantage of two lanes of data transfer to move data at up to 850MB/s, which is nearly twice as fast as a typical SATA-based SSD used in PCs. In terms of sequential writing, it supports up to 260MB/s, which is approximately three times faster than high-performance external micro SD cards.

As a result, the new 256GB UFS memory is capable of supporting seamless Ultra HD video playback and multitasking functionality on large-screen mobile devices, such as watching 4K Ultra HD movies on a split screen, while searching image files or downloading video clips. Its 256GB capacity also allows an unmatched amount of data storage on the mobile device itself. For example, one 256GB UFS chip can store about 47 full HD movies, therefore enabling much greater flexibility in handheld consumer electronics.

In addition, with the advent of next-generation smartphones that support the USB 3.0 interface, users will be able to transfer data much faster between mobile devices. The USB 3.0 interface will allow sending a 5GB-equivalent Full-HD video clip (average 90-min. movie size) in 12 seconds. Within this new storage environment, mobile users will get to take full advantage of the performance benefits of Samsung’s latest UFS memory.

Using Samsung’s advanced memory technology, the new UFS memory chips are extremely compact, even smaller than an external micro SD card, giving greater flexibility to smartphone designers.

Samsung announced availability of its 128GB UFS memory in February of last year. In only a year, it has doubled the capacity and speed of UFS memory, which should spur further growth of the mobile marketplace. Samsung will extend its premium storage line-ups that are based on its advanced V-NAND flash memory including the new 256GB UFS, and increase their production volume in line with increases in global demand.