JEDEC Announces UFS 3.0 Flash Storage Standards, Allowing 8K Video on Portable Devices

JEDEC said the new standard doubles the theoretical speed of the current UFS 2.1 standard. It also allows for operation at a greater range of temperatures. The new standard requires the host device to use hardware that supports these high transfer rates.

The new standard allows not only for 8K resolution but 4K video capture at 60 frames per second. The new standard makes ultra high-resolution video recording possible on mobile phones.

The new standard is officially called Universal Flash Storage (UFS) version 3.0, JESD220D. In addition, new updates to related standards, JESD223D UFSHCI and JESD220-2A UFS Card Extension have also been published.

Developed for mobile applications and computing systems requiring high performance with low power consumption, UFS 3.0 is the first standard to introduce MIPI M-PHY HS-Gear4, with a data rate of up to 11.6 Gbps per lane, a 2x performance increase over prior versions of the specification.

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.

To achieve the highest performance and most power efficient data transport, JEDEC UFS leverages industry leading specifications from the MIPI Alliance to form its Interconnect Layer. This collaboration continues with UFS version 3.0, which references the MIPI M-PHY v4.1 physical layer specification and the recently released MIPI UniProSM v1.8 transport layer specification.

The JESD223 UFS Host Controller Interface (UFSHCI) version 3.0 standard is intended to simplify the design process by defining a standard host controller interface with which system designers can create a common host controller software driver to work with UFS host controller hardware from different manufacturers. The HCI functionality enables higher performance and power efficiency by minimizing the involvement of the host processor in the operation of the Flash storage subsystem.

“UFS 3.0, UFSHCI 3.0 and the UFS Card Extension update offer a host of enhancements over the prior versions of these standards that will help product designers enable significant improvements in mobile devices and related applications,” said Mian Quddus, chairman of the JEDEC Board of Directors and the JC-64 Committee for Embedded Memory Storage and Removable Memory Cards. Quddus is also director of technology at Samsung.