Samsung Starts Fabbing First 512-Gigabyte Universal Flash Storage

Samsung announced that it has begun mass production of the industry's first 512-gigabyte (GB) embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) solution for use in next-generation mobile devices. Utilizing Samsung's latest 64-layer 512-gigabit (Gb) V-NAND chips, the new 512GB eUFS package for upcoming flagship smartphones and tablets.

"The new Samsung 512GB eUFS provides the best embedded storage solution for next-generation premium smartphones by overcoming potential limitations in system performance that can occur with the use of micro SD cards," said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "By assuring an early, stable supply of this advanced embedded storage, Samsung is taking a big step forward in contributing to timely launches of next-generation mobile devices by mobile manufacturers around the world."

 
To maximize the performance and energy efficiency of the new 512GB eUFS, Samsung has introduced a new set of proprietary technologies. The 64-layer 512Gb V-NAND's advanced circuit design and new power management technology in the 512GB eUFS' controller minimize the inevitable increase in energy consumed, which is particularly noteworthy since the new 512GB eUFS solution contains twice the number of cells compared to a 256GB eUFS. In addition, the 512GB eUFS' controller chip speeds up the mapping process for converting logical block addresses to those of physical blocks.

The Samsung 512GB eUFS also features strong read and write performance. With its sequential read and writes reaching up to 860 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 255MB/s respectively, the 512GB embedded memory enables transferring a 5GB-equivalent full HD video clip to an SSD in about six seconds, over eight times faster than a typical microSD card.

For random operations, the new eUFS can read 42,000 IOPS and write 40,000 IOPS. Based on the eUFS' rapid random writes, which are approximately 400 times faster than the 100 IOPS speed of a conventional microSD card, mobile users can enjoy seamless multimedia experiences such as high-resolution burst shooting, as well as file searching and video downloading in dual-app viewing mode.

On a related note, Samsung intends to steadily increase an aggressive production volume for its 64-layer 512Gb V-NAND chips, in addition to expanding its 256Gb V-NAND production. This should meet the increase in demand for advanced embedded mobile storage, as well as for premium SSDs and removable memory cards with high density and performance.