UFS 3.0 - Faster than the fastest

Memory read/write speeds have significantly improved in the personal computers department with the advent of new technologies such as solid state drives (SSD) but, for the low powered devices like the chromebook, smartphones etc. the memory read/write speeds are still a question of concern.

These low powered devices currently make use of slower flash storage devices like the micro sd cards and eMMC storage. The flagships or the high end devices of these categories make use of the current UFS 2.1 standard which provided the fastest memory I/O speeds of the order of about 750MB/s.

The standards group body JEDEC recently announced the new UFS 3.0 standard will be faster than the fastest available which is UFS 2.1. A comparison of the current memory standards in use along with their memory read/write speeds is given below.

	Sequential Read (MB/s)	Sequential Write (MB/s)
eMMC	250	125
UFS 2.0	550	140
UFS 2.1	750	150

  

Although, the UFS 2.1 standard provides very good memory read/write speeds of the order of 750MB/s but the new UFS 3.0 standard is expected to deliver memory access speeds up to 23.2 Gbps. This is made possible using two fast access lanes with each providing memory access speed up to 11.6 Gbps. 

In a press conference the standard group explains,“UFS is a high-performance interface designed for use in applications where power consumption needs to be minimized, including mobile systems such as smart phones and tablets as well as automotive applications. Its high-speed serial interface and optimized protocol enable significant improvements in throughput and system performance.”

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What this means is that with the advent of the new UFS 3.0 standards low powered devices such as smartphones and camera could capture 4K and even 8K videos without any memory speed bottleneck issues.

JEDEC has also mentioned that the new UFS 3.0 standard also has the ability to function at high temperatures and also support refresh operation. These two features are specifically designed for the automotive industry which has a very high potential owing to how automobiles these days make use of the technology (Self driving cars anyone?)

Now what remains is to see any device which surfaces up with this new UFS 3.0 standard memory integrated so that the technology can be put to test in the real world scenario. It is highly likely that it would be the top tier smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, OnePlus etc. and those in the DSLR industry like Canon, RED etc which will be utilising this technology in their devices.

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We hope to see devices coming up with faster memory access speeds as this has always been a pain in the butt. Will the UFS 3.0 bring a revolution? What are your thoughts on it? Tell us in the comment section down below.