KIOXIA America, Inc. Begins Shipping UFS 5.0 Evaluation Samples

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced that it has begun shipping evaluation samples¹ of embedded flash memory compatible with the next-generation UFS standard, UFS 5.0, which is currently being standardized by JEDEC^®2.

UFS 5.0 is a new standard for embedded flash storage designed to meet the performance requirements of next-generation mobile devices such as high-end smartphones equipped with on-device AI functions. It utilizes MIPI^® M-PHY^® version 6.0 for the physical layer and UniPro^® version 3.0 for the protocol. M-PHY version 6.0 introduces the new HS-GEAR6 mode, theoretically supporting an interface speed of up to 46.6 Gigabits per second (Gb/s) per lane; with 2 lanes, UFS 5.0 can achieve approximately 10.8 Gigabytes per second (GB/s) of effective read/write performance.

The evaluation samples incorporate a newly developed in-house controller for UFS 5.0 and KIOXIA BiCS FLASH™ generation 8 3D flash memory and support capacities of 512 GB and 1 TB. The package has been redesigned with a small 7.5 x 13 mm size, contributing to board space efficiency and design flexibility.

The samples are being provided to chipset vendors who are developing UFS 5.0-compatible host systems, enabling them to evaluate performance and conduct interoperability testing.

“Kioxia continues to drive innovation in embedded flash memory with the development of UFS 5.0 solutions designed for next-generation mobile applications,” said Maitry Dholakia, vice president, Memory Business Unit, KIOXIA America, Inc. “By delivering the high speeds and performance required for advanced on-device AI and providing early samples of high-capacity, high-speed solutions, we are helping customers accelerate the development and validation of future-ready smartphones.”

Kioxia will continue to introduce new flash memory technologies into its UFS products to meet the increasing demands for larger capacity and higher performance in the mobile market.