In terms of storage possibilities, smart gadgets have advanced significantly in terms of their speed and functionality. eMMCs have typically been used by tablets and smartphones to store data. But you must have heard of UFS storage if you recently purchased a flagship gadget from Samsung, OnePlus, or Sony. The latest version of UFS, the UFS 3.0, is currently under development, and it has been dubbed as the storage industry’s standard for the future. But what is UFS 3.0 exactly, and how does it operate? If you’re curious about these similar issues, keep reading as we go over all the modifications UFS 3.0 makes. However, before we do that, let’s talk about what UFS actually is:
What is UFS?
A typical flash storage specification for digital cameras, cell phones, and other consumer electronics is called Universal Flash Storage, or UFS. The major goal of UFS is to boost flash memory storage’s dependability and data transfer speed. The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association is the organisation that created the UFS standard.
The SATA interface, which is utilised in PCs, and the eMMC flash-optimized low power consumption combine to provide the high performance benefits of UFS. The UFS is also based on the SCSI architectural paradigm and supports SCSI Tagged Command Queuing, which enables the operating system to send multiple read and write requests to the storage, in contrast to earlier storage standards like eMMC and ePOP.
UFS tries to provide customers with a better overall user experience by fusing the highest level of performance and quality. Faster data input/output responsiveness provided by the next generation of flash storage enables quicker file transfers, snappier bootups, and significantly faster data copying. UFS promises seamless multitasking that enables you to watch high-quality movies, play high-bandwidth games, as well as operate many tasks in the background, all without any interruption in functionality for the average user who doesn’t want to dive into the technical details.
UFS vs eMMC
The UFS claims to have significantly better performance than the previous storage standard, eMMC (embedded Multi-Media Controller). The Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) serial interface used by UFS provides separate routes for read and write operations. In essence, UFS has a full-duplex interface that permits simultaneous read and write while eMMC only has a half-duplex interface that allows either read or write.
Additionally, UFS contains a Command Queue (CQ) that efficiently organises all of the activities and/or instructions that need to be executed. This allows for the simultaneous handling of several requests and the real-time modification of the order of tasks. On the other hand, because it lacks CQ, eMMC must wait for a process to finish before moving on to the next. All of this aids UFS in completely dominating eMMC storage.
| UFS 2.1 | UFS 2.0 | eMMC 5.1 | |
| Sequential Read | 749.5 MB/s | 569.12 MB/s | 282.05 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 142.95 MB/s | 137.73 MB/s | 92.55 MB/s |
| Random Read | 156.07 MB/s, 40722.38 IOPS (4KB) | 94.0 MB/s, 24065.65 IOPS (4KB) | 29.05 MB/s, 7438.59 IOPS (4KB) |
| Random Write | 149.4 MB/s, 38247.32 IOPS (4KB) | 55.43 MB/s, 14192.4 IOPS (4KB) | 14.43 MB/s, 3694.57 IOPS (4KB) |
| SQLite Insert | 2401.78 QPS, 0.87 sec | 734.81 TPS, 2.78 sec | 830.44 QPS, 2.46 sec |
| SQLite Update | 3512.33 QPS, 0.57 sec | 890.68 TPS, 2.29 sec | 1001.5 QPS, 2.04 sec |
| SQLite Delete | 3825.89 QPS, 0.55 sec | 980.08 TPS, 2.09 sec | 1198.3 QPS, 1.71 sec |
Evolution of UFS
The first UFS cards with 32, 64, 128, and 256 GB of storage capacity were released by Samsung in 2016 and were based on the UFS 1.0 Card Extension Standard, even though the UFS Standard was initially introduced back in 2011. Since then, a growing number of businesses have begun to offer UFS Cards and storage alternatives. It was updated to UFS 2.0 in 2013 and UFS 2.1 in 2016, respectively. UFS 2.1 is a recent high-end phone standard.
| UFS | 1 and 1.1 | 2 and 2.1 |
| Introduced | 2011 and 2012 | 2013 and 2016 |
| Bandwidth per lane | 300 MB/s | 600 MB/s |
| Max. number of lanes | 1 | 2 |
| Max. total bandwidth | 300 MB/s | 1200 MB/s |
What s New in UFS 3.0
UFS 3.0 is the upcoming standard in the UFS community. The layer stacking has been increased from 48 to 64 in version 3.0 in order to improve over version 2.1. Additionally, the power consumption will drop from 3.3V to 2.8V thanks to the 3-bit V-NAND flash memory chip.
| Phison Gen1 | Phison Gen2 | Next Gen | |
| Application | UFS 2.1 – HS G3 x1-L | UFS 2.1 – HS G3 x2-L | UFS 3.0 – HS G4 x2-L |
| ECC Throughput (Higher than I/F) | 800MB/s (800 x 1) | 1333MB/s (800 x 1.66) | 2666MB/s (800 x 3.33) |
| Area (approx.) | x1 | x0.32 | x0.44 |
| Power Consumption | x1 | x0.46 | x0.67 |
| DIE Area Cost | x1 | x0.53 | x0.75 |
The electronic company Phison mentioned above that the UFS 3.0 will have extraordinarily high performance rates. While UFS 2.0 and UFS 2.1 have maximum throughput bandwidths of 800 MB/s and 1333 MB/s, respectively, UFS 3.0 will have a fantastic throughput bandwidth of 2666 MB/s, which is just double that of its predecessor. UFS 3.0 is currently under development, thus it will be a few months before the standard is formally introduced. Only time will tell when device manufacturers for the typical consumer will accept the UFS 3.0 standard, given that it took smartphone adapters some time to adapt to the UFS 2.1 standard (Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 was the first processor to support it).
SEE ALSO:How USB 3.2 Differs from USB 3.1 and What USB 3.2 Is
UFS 3.0: The Future Is Here
Flash memory has gone a long way since it was originally introduced in 1984, progressing from pen drives to SD and microSD cards to incredibly fast SSDs and eventually eMMCs. The UFS standard is the newest addition to the NAND flash memory family, and it has a promising future. With roughly three times the raw performance of eMMC, UFS is undoubtedly becoming the preferred option for most device manufacturers. In order to achieve rates of up to 800MB/s, several contemporary devices, like the Galaxy S8/S8+, Xperia XZ Premium, OnePlus 5, and Huawei P10 Plus, use UFS 2.1 Storage. The next generation of mobile computing will undoubtedly be speedier than ever thanks to UFS 3.0, which is currently in the development phases. Comment here with your thoughts on UFS and your predictions for the future of mobile computing.
