SK hynix to roll out new UFS smartphone memory

SK hynix, South Korea’s leading chip maker, said Thursday it would start rolling out its first ultrafast Universal Flash Storage, or UFS chips, in its recent push for the soaring mobile device market this year.

The company said talks were already ongoing with global handset makers to supply its 64-gigabyte embedded memory based on the UFS 2.0, which is the next-generation NAND flash-based memory standard. 

The company currently provides NAND flash chips for Apple’s iPhone 6.

SK hynix said its UFS products performed 32,000 input/output operations per second for random reading, three times faster than the current eMMC 5.0 storage used in today’s top smartphones.

The UFS uses the Command Queue technology that is usually used in SSD, or solid-state drive, solutions to handle read and write commands simultaneously for better data operation efficiency.

It also features multi-threading, which allows commands to be given different priorities, such as time-sensitive host requests to be responded to first for a better user experience and reduced energy consumption.

“SK hynix expects mobile devices such as smartphones to enhance their performances with the advanced UFS 2.0,” said Choi Young-joon, SK hynix’s senior vice president and head of the NAND solution development division.

Industry watchers predict the UFS 2.0 standard to be adopted by premium smartphones from this year, with the adoption being extended to cover lower-end phones in phases.

According to market research firm IHS Technology, UFS will make up 4 percent of mobile embedded memory products this year and is expected to claim 23 percent by 2017 and 49 percent by 2019.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)