Samsung executive Jay Oh outlined a scheduled timeline for the launch of the company’s own UFS 3.0 flash storage and LPDDR5 memory solutions, with the former of those arriving as early as the first half of 2019. Speaking at Qualcomm’s 4G/5G Summit, the representative said the new technology will improve memory bandwidth by as much as double compared to UFS 2.1, allowing for a massive increase in storage speed, as well as future improvements to capacity. That claim is backed by the standards published earlier this year by JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, which specified that UFS 3.0 could achieve a data rate of 11.6 Gbps per lane for a maximum rate of 23.2 Gbps across two lanes. According to Samsung, mass-production of its LPDDR5 chips will begin in the following year. The new tech will reduce RAM memory energy consumption by as much as 20-percent. On the performance side of the equation, the company says the memory will be able to move between 44GB per second and 51.2GB per second.
Background: Before the recently revealed timeline, Samsung had already revealed the existence of its new memory module in a prototype with a capacity of 8GB. At the time, the memory was touted as being faster than the Korean tech giant’s LPDDR4X solution by as much as 50-percent and it was speculated that Samsung was preparing the RAM for use in its next flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S10. However, that doesn’t necessarily seem like a plausible scenario since the company’s current-generation flagship was launched in March and Samsung typically announces a new iteration of the family every year or so. That means the handset will almost certainly arrive well before the planned 2020 launch of LPDDR5 RAM solutions.
Impact: As things currently stand, Samsung is going to have quite a bit of competition in the market for both types of mobile memory. Rival Micron is reportedly following a similar timeline for both but appears to actually be ahead in the race with regard to UFS 3.0 flash storage. That’s Samsung has not provided a timeline for pushing past the current maximum UFS 2.1 capacity of 512GB while Micron is aiming for mass production of 1TB solutions in 2021. Both companies are looking to release LPPDR5 solutions in the same year. As indicated during the event in question, in either case, the competition will likely prove beneficial to the mobile industry overall, especially as 5G begins to spread. The mobile web and applications that will take full advantage of next-generation networks are going to put a lot of strain on the capabilities of both storage and memory in current Android devices. These new solutions should be able to the influx and outflow of data created by those much more adequately.
