The formulation of the UFS 4.1 standard. The implementation of large-capacity storage such as QLC may be accelerated.

The next-generation NAND standard for mobile devices has been formulated. Compared with existing memory, its performance makes it easier to implement large-capacity storage, and its utilization in areas such as artificial intelligence smartphones is expected to increase in the future. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are also said to be paying close attention to related technologies.

According to recent news from industry insiders, the International Semiconductor Standards Organization (JEDEC) recently announced the standard for "UFS 4.1".

SK Hynix first released UFS 4.1 samples in the second half of last year

UFS stands for Universal Flash Storage. It is a NAND product focused on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, characterized by improved power efficiency and reliability. The first standard was established in 2011 and is still actively adopted in high-value products.

About UFS

From 1.0, the UFS standard has been continuously improved and version 4.0 was established in 2022. In addition, JEDEC created the next-generation standard UFS 4.1 and the corresponding interface at the end of last year, and disclosed the specific performance this month.

UFS 4.1 introduces more efficient memory management and new features to improve system throughput, and includes RPMB (Protected Memory Block Replay) authentication to prevent unauthorized data access.

In particular, UFS 4.1 improves precision, thereby enhancing storage circuit performance. JEDEC explained that this paves the way for the implementation of QLC (Quad-Level Cell).

According to how many bits are stored in a cell (the smallest unit of storage memory), NAND is divided into SLC (single-level cell; 1), MLC (multi-level cell; 2), TLC (three-level cell; 3), QLC, etc. Since QLC stores more bits, it is easier to realize large-capacity products. But the technical difficulty is also higher.

Currently, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, the IT industry has put forward higher requirements for data storage and processing. Therefore, QLC NAND has become the focus of the data center SSD (eSSD) industry. As Samsung Electronics and Apple are strengthening the device-side AI performance of the next generation of smartphones, it is expected that the mobile NAND market will adopt QLC in the future.

Domestic companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are also paying attention to the establishment of the UFS 4.1 standard.

Hyun Jae-woong, executive director of Samsung Electronics, said: "UFS is a high-performance, low-power and small-package memory that is very suitable for edge artificial intelligence and the mobile and automotive industries." UFS 4.1 includes UFS performance and security, QLC support, etc. "It is effective in terms of improvement," he said.

It is understood that UFS 4.1 adopts the M-PHY® 5.0 and UniPro® 2.0 specifications of MIPI® Alliance, doubling the interface bandwidth and achieving a read and write speed of up to about 4.2 GB/s, bringing an unprecedented high-speed experience to mobile storage.

The new standard strengthens the handling of exception types, improves recovery speed, and improves health notifications, allowing the system to handle errors more promptly, laying the foundation for the application of quad-level cell (QLC) NAND.

UFS 4.1 introduces a host-initiated defragmentation function to further improve memory maintenance efficiency by optimizing read traffic. In addition, the WriteBooster buffer and Partial Flush are adjusted to maximize system throughput.

Source: Content integrated from the Internet

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