Kioxia Sampling UFS V.4.0 Up to 1TB Embedded Flash Memory Devices

Kioxia Europe GmbH begun sampling ^[1] the latest-gen of its Universal Flash Storage ^[2](UFS) Ver. 4.0 embedded flash memory devices.

Supported in capacities of 256, 512GB, and 1TB, these products are for a variety of next-gen mobile applications, including leading-edge smartphones.

The enhanced performance ^[3] of these UFS products provides optimal utilization of 5G connectivity, resulting in accelerated downloads, minimized latency, and an enhanced user experience. A smaller package ^[3] size contributes to board space efficiency and design flexibility.

Key features include:

RW speed improvement over previous-gen ^[4]: approx. +15% sequential write, +50% random write and +30% random read.

Package size reduction over previous-gen ^[5]: Package size is 9x13mm and package thickness is 0.8mm (256 and 512GB) and 0.9mm (1TB), resulting in an approx. 18% reduction compared to conventional package size (11x13mm).

The company was the 1st to introduce UFS technology ^[6] and continues to develop new products. The latest UFS Ver. 4.0 devices integrate the firm’s BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and a controller in a JEDEC standard package. UFS 4.0 incorporates MIPI M-PHY 5.0 and UniPro 2.0 and supports theoretical interface speeds of up to 23.2Gb/s per lane or 46.4Gb/s per device. UFS 4.0 is backward compatible with UFS 3.1.

“Kioxia’s UFS technology is the ‘racehorse equivalent’ of the company’s family of embedded storage devices. With our next-generation UFS 4.0, we have doubled the random write and increased random reads by 30%,” said Axel Störmann, VP and CTO, embedded memory and SSD, Kioxia Europe. “As development continues, we are proud to help accelerate mobile communication.”

Sample shipments for the 256 and 512GB products begin this month, with the 1TB offering following in June 2024.

(1): Sample shipments of the 256 and 512GB device began this month, with the 1TB device scheduled to follow after June 2024. Spec of the samples may differ from commercial products.
(2): Universal Flash Storage (UFS) is a product category for a class of embedded memory products built to the JEDEC UFS standard spec. Due to its serial interface, UFS supports full duplexing, which enables both concurrent reading and writing between the host processor and UFS device.
(3): Compared to the previous-gen
(4): Kioxia previous gen 512GB device
(5): Compared to Kioxia previous-gen UFS 4.0 product.
(6): Kioxia Corporation’s first sample shipment, as of February 8, 2013.
In every mention of a Kioxia product: product density is identified based on the density of memory chip(s) within the product, not the amount of memory capacity available for data storage by the end user. Consumer-usable capacity will be less due to overhead data areas, formatting, bad blocks, and other constraints, and may also vary based on the host device and application. For details, please refer to applicable product specifications. The definition of 1KB = 2¹⁰ bytes = 1,024 bytes. The definition of 1Gb = 2³⁰ bits = 1,073,741,824 bits. The definition of 1GB = 2³⁰ bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes. 1Tb = 2⁴⁰ bits = 1,099,511,627,776 bits.
RW speeds are the best values obtained in a specific test environment at Kioxia and firm’s warrants neither read nor write speeds in individual devices. Read and write speed may vary depending on the device used and the file size read or written.