Samsung unveils new high-speed 256GB storage chips for smartphones
Consumers may never again have to decide which photos to delete from their phone or which songs to stream from the cloud, as Samsung has announced its first 256-gigabyte storage chips designed specifically for mobile devices.
The new silicon takes advantage of the UFS 2.0 standard, which Samsung says makes them even faster than SATA-attached SSDs used in desktop computers. Sequential reads can reach 850 megabytes per second, with sequential writes clocking 260 megabytes per second.
"By providing high-density UFS memory that is nearly twice as fast as a SATA SSD for PCs, we will contribute to a paradigm shift within the mobile data storage market," Samsung marketing exec Joo Sun Choi said in a release. "We are determined to push the competitive edge in premium storage line-ups - OEM NVMe SSDs, external SSDs, and UFS - by moving aggressively to enhance performance and capacity in all three markets."
Samsung says that the chip itself is smaller than a MicroSD card, a clear win as space inside devices is increasingly constrained by thermal needs and the desire for larger batteries.
In Apple's case, it's not yet clear whether the company intends to move toward UFS in the future. Though Samsung is a major supplier of NAND chips for the iPhone, the iPhone 6s uses a PCI-E-based controller with NVMe, more similar to the storage configuration in the 12-inch MacBook than to Samsung's new solution.
The new silicon takes advantage of the UFS 2.0 standard, which Samsung says makes them even faster than SATA-attached SSDs used in desktop computers. Sequential reads can reach 850 megabytes per second, with sequential writes clocking 260 megabytes per second.
"By providing high-density UFS memory that is nearly twice as fast as a SATA SSD for PCs, we will contribute to a paradigm shift within the mobile data storage market," Samsung marketing exec Joo Sun Choi said in a release. "We are determined to push the competitive edge in premium storage line-ups - OEM NVMe SSDs, external SSDs, and UFS - by moving aggressively to enhance performance and capacity in all three markets."
Samsung says that the chip itself is smaller than a MicroSD card, a clear win as space inside devices is increasingly constrained by thermal needs and the desire for larger batteries.
In Apple's case, it's not yet clear whether the company intends to move toward UFS in the future. Though Samsung is a major supplier of NAND chips for the iPhone, the iPhone 6s uses a PCI-E-based controller with NVMe, more similar to the storage configuration in the 12-inch MacBook than to Samsung's new solution.
Comments
yep, reads are always faster than writes and am not sure it is megabytes either, most times it is spec in megabits which 8x slower then megabits
If this is the case this is going to be expensive memory, I wonder what the over endurance will be, something like 150 erase cycles. You do not want to be erasing that much if this is the case so you better keep all those pictures.
Storage is never, ever specced in Mbps, and in any case 850 Mbps would be very slow for modern NAND.
But it would make for some very small storage units.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3035540/data-storage/review-samsungs-business-card-sized-ssd-offers-2tb-and-nears-internal-drive-speeds.html
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Portable-External-MU-PT2T0B-AM/dp/B01AVF6UHK
The following larger form factor ones seem to have been available for a while:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E2T0B-AM/dp/B010QD6W9I
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-SATA-Internal-MZ-7KE2T0BW/dp/B010QD6RX4
The prices are still pretty high though. Hopefully Apple can adjust their Mac options this year. They are still at over $1/GB. It would be good to just have base 256GB and then $200 for 512GB, $500 for 1TB and $800 for 1.5TB.
If the prices haven't changed, it will likely mean the iPhones still have a 16GB entry point. Sometimes manufacturers cut off production of entry level chips but as long as the competition keeps offering cheaper alternatives, they all have to.
;-)
Last I knew there wasn't a PCI-E controller anywhere inside Apples SOC. My impression was that the controller interfacing to flash is custom.
In in any event I can see Apple easily changing the physical interface to flash if the benefits are there. 256GB in a fast chip is a big benefit.
that is an SSD not raw NAND device, plus Apple integrated the raw NAND chip into the SOC package,
I guess rotatijg ting rust is still in my future.