Samsung Electronics has developed UFS 5.0, a next-generation Universal Flash Storage tailored for On-device AI devices, in an industry first. UFS is a high-performance embedded memory standard used in smartphones and Extended Reality (XR) devices.
Samsung Electronics said on the 23rd that it developed a memory solution applying the latest embedded memory standard from the semiconductor standardization body JEDEC, the UFS 5.0 interface. The product is based on Samsung Electronics' ninth-generation V-NAND. Samsung Electronics plans to begin mass production in the fourth quarter of this year.
On-device AI is a method that processes AI computations inside devices such as smartphones, wearables, and XR, rather than on a cloud server. As Generative AI functions move into devices, storage is shifting from a simple repository to a component that determines AI response speed and data processing performance.
UFS 5.0's data transfer bandwidth is 10.8 gigabytes per second (GB/s). Sequential read speed is 10.8 GB/s, and sequential write speed is 9.5 GB/s, more than twice as fast as the previous UFS 4.1. It targets an On-device AI environment that must quickly store and process large volumes of data inside the device.
Power efficiency also improved. Samsung Electronics said it boosted power efficiency by more than 40% over the previous model by applying clock gating and multi-voltage technologies. Clock gating is a technology that reduces power consumption by blocking operation signals to circuits that are not in use. Multi-voltage lowers power consumption and heat by applying appropriate voltages to each circuit.
The product is also smaller. Samsung Electronics implemented UFS 5.0 in a package measuring 7.5 mm wide, 13 mm long, and 0.9 mm high. At 16.7% smaller than the previous model, it can be used in the design of mobile, wearable, and XR devices. The company plans to offer capacities up to 1 terabyte (TB).
Choi Jang-seok, executive vice president and head of product planning team in the Memory Business at Samsung Electronics, said, "In the era of On-device AI, storage is establishing itself as a key element that determines the AI experience, beyond a simple data repository," and added, "With the development of UFS 5.0, we will set a new standard for next-generation mobile storage."