Skip to content

Samsung Begins Mass Production of the Fastest Storage for Flagship Smartphones

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

  • mail
 Samsung UFS 512GB Chip front and back."
 Samsung UFS 512GB Chip front and back."
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) UFS (embedded Universal Flash Storage) 3.1 for use in flagship smartphones. Delivering three times the write speed of the previous 512GB UFS 3.0 mobile memory, Samsung's new UFS 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 UFS 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 UFS 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 UFS 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 UFS 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. 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
ProductSequential ReadSequential WriteRandom ReadRandom Write
512GB UFS 3.1
(March 2020)
2100MB/s1200MB/s
(3X enhancement)
100,000 IOPS
(1.6X enhancement)
70,000 IOPS
(1.03X enhancement)
512GB UFS 3.0
(Feb. 2019)
2100MB/s410MB/s63,000 IOPS68,000 IOPS
1TB UFS 2.1
(Jan. 2019)
1000MB/s260MB/s58,000 IOPS50,000 IOPS
512GB UFS 2.1
(Nov. 2017)
860MB/s255MB/s42,000 IOPS40,000 IOPS
Automotive UFS 2.1
(Sept. 2017)
850MB/s150MB/s45,000 IOPS32,000 IOPS
256GB UFS Card
(July 2016)
530MB/s170MB/s40,000 IOPS35,000 IOPS
256GB UFS 2.0
(Feb. 2016)
850MB/s260MB/s45,000 IOPS40,000 IOPS
128GB UFS 2.0
(Jan. 2015)
350MB/s150MB/s19,000 IOPS14,000 IOPS
eMMC 5.1250MB/s125MB/s11,000 IOPS13,000 IOPS
eMMC 5.0250MB/s90MB/s7,000 IOPS13,000 IOPS
eMMC 4.5140MB/s50MB/s7,000 IOPS2,000 IOPS
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at https://news.samsung.com.

Explore more stories

For more latest news in the Semiconductor Newsroom, click the button below.

Go to Samsung Semiconductor Newsroom