JEDEC's UFS 3.0 will double the bandwidth of flash storage

New standard will be used in mobile devices, VR headsets and cars

Standards body JEDEC has promised that its newest standard, Universal Flash Storage (UFS) version 3.0, will double the bandwidth and lower the power consumption of flash storage.

UFS 3.0, which will be used in future mobile devices, Chromebooks, VR headsets and automotive devices, doubles the per-lane performance of UFS 2.1 to 11.6 Gbps, increasing the peak data transfer rate of a storage device to 23.2 Gbps.

The new standard also introduces a 2.5 V VCC power supply mode, which enables lower power consumption and support for the latest types of NAND.

JEDEC has introduced two new features to UFS 3.0, specifically for the automotive market: the ability to function at an extended temperature range (-40°C to 105°C) and refresh operation with added host control mechanism to boost reliability.

Also this week, JEDEC introduced an updated version of the UFS Card Extension:

"UFS 3.0, UFSHCI 3.0 and the UFS Card Extension update offer a host of enhancements over the prior versions of these standards that will help product designers enable significant improvements in mobile devices and related applications," said Mian Quddus, chairman of the JEDEC Board of Directors and the JC-64 Committee for Embedded Memory Storage and Removable Memory Cards.

He added: "The addition of features specifically for the automotive market underscores the commitment of JEDEC members to continue to evolve the UFS ecosystem to meet the needs of the industry and, ultimately, the consumer."

It's likely going to be some time until companies implement UFS 3.0, but SamMobile speculates that Samsung will be among the first to adopt it.

Samsung started to produce the industry's first UFS solution for use in automotive applications back in September last year, based on the - at the time - most up-to-date UFS 2.1 standard, and was also the first company to introduce 128GB embedded memory based on the UFS 2.0 standard in 2015.