Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry’s first one-terabyte (TB) embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) 2.1, for use in next-generation mobile applications. Just four years after introducing the first UFS solution, the 128-gigabyte (GB) eUFS, Samsung has passed the much-anticipated terabyte threshold in smartphone storage. Smartphone enthusiasts will soon be able to enjoy storage capacity comparable to a premium notebook PC, without having to pair their phones with additional memory cards.

“The 1TB eUFS is expected to play a critical role in bringing a more notebook-like user experience to the next generation of mobile devices,” said Cheol Choi, executive vice president of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “What’s more, Samsung is committed to assuring the most reliable supply chain and adequate production quantities to support the timely launches of upcoming flagship smartphones in accelerating growth of the global mobile market.”

Within the same package size (11.5mm x 13.0mm), the 1TB eUFS solution doubles the capacity of the previous 512GB version by combining 16 stacked layers of Samsung’s most advanced 512-gigabit (Gb) V-NAND flash memory and a newly developed proprietary controller. Smartphone users will now be able to store 260 10-minute videos in 4K UHD (3840×2160) format, whereas the 64GB eUFS widely used in many current high-end smartphones is capable of storing 13 videos of the same size.

The 1TB eUFS also possesses exceptional speed, allowing users to transfer large amounts of multimedia content in significantly reduced time. At up to 1,000 megabytes per second (MB/s), the new eUFS features approximately twice the sequential read speed of a typical 2.5-inch SATA solid state drive (SSD). This means that 5GB-sized full HD videos can be offloaded to an NVMe SSD in as fast as five seconds, which is 10 times the speed of a typical microSD card. Furthermore, the random read speed has increased by up to 38 percent over the 512GB version, clocking in at up to 58,000 IOPS. Random writes are 500 times faster than a high-performance microSD card (100 IOPS), coming in at up to 50,000 IOPS. The random speeds allow for high-speed continuous shooting at 960 frames per second and will enable smartphone users to take full advantage of the multi-camera capabilities in today and tomorrow’s flagship models.

Samsung plans to expand the production of its fifth-generation 512Gb V-NAND at its Pyeongtaek plant in Korea throughout the first half of 2019 to fully address the anticipated strong demand for the 1TB eUFS from mobile device manufacturers around the world.

* Reference: Comparison of internal memory performance

Following the memory breakthrough of the automotive industry’s first 128GB eUFS in September, 2017, Samsung’s 256GB eUFS is now being shipped to automotive manufacturers preparing the market for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), next-generation infotainment systems and new-age dashboards in luxury vehicles.

As thermal management is crucial for automotive memory applications, Samsung’s 256GB eUFS extends the temperature range to between -40°C and 105°C for both operational and power-saving modes. Warranties for conventional embedded multimedia card (eMMC) 5.1 solutions generally cover -25°C to 85°C for vehicles in operation and -40°C to 85°C when in idle or power-saving mode,

“With the new temperature threshold for automobile warranties, major automotive manufacturers can now design-in memory that’s even well suited for extreme environments and know they will be getting highly reliable performance,” said Kyoung Hwan Han, vice president of NAND marketing at Samsung Electronics. “Starting with high-end vehicles, we expect to expand our business portfolio across the entire automotive market, while accelerating growth in the premium memory segment.”

Samsung’s 256GB eUFS not only can easily endure the new temperature specification, despite the heat-sensitive nature of memory storage, but also through its temperature notification feature, a sensor will notify the host application processor (AP) when the device temperature exceeds 105°C or any pre-set level. The AP would then regulate its clock speed to lower the temperature to an acceptable level.

Sequential reads for the 256GB eUFS can reach 850 megabytes per second (MB/s), which is at the high end of the current JEDEC UFS 2.1 standard, and random read operations come in at 45,000 IOPS. In addition, a data refresh feature speeds up processing and enables greater system reliability by relocating older data to other less-used cells.

The temperature notification, developed by Samsung, and data refresh features are included in UFS specification, version 3.0, which was announced last month by JEDEC, a global semiconductor standards organization.

Samsung plans to bolster its technology partnerships with global automakers and component providers, and continue expanding its eUFS line-up with an aim to lead the premium memory market.