What’s happened? JEDEC, the organization that develops the UFS standard, has revealed details about the UFS 5.0 storage standard that will soon power smartphones. This time around, the focus is also on how storage modules can meet the growing demand for on-device AI processing with a significant improvement in sequential speeds.
- UFS 5.0 offers a sequential speed of up to 10.8 GB/s, which is approximately twice as fast as the current UFS 4.0 while being more power efficient at the same time.
- The promised speeds are higher than the typical PCIe Gen 4 SSD (around 7.5 GB/s), but still behind the latest PCIe Gen 5 SSDs (around GB/s).
- Other technical improvements in the UFS 5.0 standard include an integrated link equalization for noise isolation, support for inline hashing, and a dedicated supply rail for noise isolation.
Why is this important? Today, our devices use a plethora of AI applications, which could benefit from faster storage. Even otherwise, the size and storage requirements of productivity or work-related apps are increasing.
- Currently, the majority of Android flagships run on the UFS 4.0 standard.
- However, the technology was announced in 2022, when smartphones weren’t AI-driven.
- Today, an increasing number of apps rely on real-time AI processing, which demands faster storage speeds.
Why should I care? Imagine opening a first-person shooter video game on your smartphone, but for a change, you get to lobby much faster instead of waiting for a minute or so.
- The storage standard could help manufacturers develop new and more exciting AI features (which require higher data processing speeds).
- With backward compatibility with UFS 4, it ensures a seamless transition; you don’t have to worry about transferring your data either.
- In the real world, UFS 5.0 could improve app launch times, facilitate smoother multitasking, faster camera processing, and significantly decrease boot times.
OK, what’s next? According to Samsung Semiconductor’s roadmap (via SamMobile), the company could use UFS 5.0 in 2027, likely on the purported Galaxy S27 series. We could also see other Android manufacturers adopting the technology in the same year.
