Samsung Begins Mass Production of the Fastest Storage for Flagship Smartphones

The new 512GB eUFS 3.1 stores 8K videos and large-size image files without buffering

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry’s first 512-gigabyte (GB) eUFS (embedded Universal Flash Storage) 3.1 for use in flagship smartphones. Delivering three times the write speed of the previous 512GB eUFS 3.0 mobile memory, Samsung’s new eUFS 3.1 breaks the 1GB/s performance threshold in smartphone storage.

“With our introduction of the fastest mobile storage, smartphone users will no longer have to worry about the bottleneck they face with conventional storage cards,” said Cheol Choi, executive vice president of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “The new eUFS 3.1 reflects our continuing commitment to supporting the rapidly increasing demands from global smartphone makers this year.”

At a sequential write speed of over 1,200MB/s, Samsung 512GB eUFS 3.1 boasts more than twice the speed of a SATA-based PC (540MB/s) and over ten times the speed of a UHS-I microSD card (90MB/s). This means consumers can enjoy the speed of an ultra-slim notebook when storing massive files like 8K videos or several hundred large-size photos in their smartphones, without any buffering. Transferring contents from an old phone to a new device will also require considerably less time. Phones with the new eUFS 3.1 will only take about 1.5 minutes to move 100GB of data whereas UFS 3.0-based phones require more than four minutes.

In terms of random performance, the 512GB eUFS 3.1 processes up to 60 percent faster than the widely used UFS 3.0 version, offering 100,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for reads and 70,000 IOPS for writes.

Along with the 512GB option, Samsung will also have 256GB and 128GB capacities available for flagship smartphones that will be launched later this year.

Samsung began volume production of fifth-generation V-NAND at its new Xi’an, China, line (X2) this month to fully accommodate storage demand throughout the flagship and high-end smartphone market. The company soon plans to shift V-NAND volume production at its Pyeongtaek line (P1) in Korea from fifth-generation to sixth-generation V-NAND to better address the growing demand.

Samsung Embedded Storage Memory Lineup

Product

Sequential Read

Sequential Write

Random Read

Random Write

512GB eUFS 3.1

(March 2020)

2100MB/s

1200MB/s

(3X enhancement)

100,000 IOPS

(1.6X enhancement)

70,000 IOPS

(1.03X enhancement)

512GB eUFS 3.0

(Feb. 2019)

2100MB/s

410MB/s

63,000 IOPS

68,000 IOPS

1TB eUFS 2.1

(Jan. 2019)

1000MB/s

260MB/s

58,000 IOPS

50,000 IOPS

512GB eUFS 2.1

(Nov. 2017)

860MB/s

255MB/s

42,000 IOPS

40,000 IOPS

Automotive UFS 2.1

(Sept. 2017)

850MB/s

150MB/s

45,000 IOPS

32,000 IOPS

256GB UFS Card

(July 2016)

530MB/s

170MB/s

40,000 IOPS

35,000 IOPS

256GB eUFS 2.0

(Feb. 2016)

850MB/s

260MB/s

45,000 IOPS

40,000 IOPS

128GB eUFS 2.0

(Jan. 2015)

350MB/s

150MB/s

19,000 IOPS

14,000 IOPS

eMMC 5.1

250MB/s

125MB/s

11,000 IOPS

13,000 IOPS

eMMC 5.0

250MB/s

90MB/s

7,000 IOPS

13,000 IOPS

eMMC 4.5

140MB/s

50MB/s

7,000 IOPS

2,000 IOPS