Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it has embarked on the mass production of the 128-gigabyte (GB) automotive embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) for the first time in the industry.

The eUFS is considered the next-generation NAND flash memory succeeding the embedded Multi-Media Card (eMMC) currently used in mobile devices such as smartphones. It has started replacing eMMC in premium smartphones thanks to its faster processing speed.

The Korean tech giant, which is also the world’s largest chip maker, first ventured into the eUFS market after mass producing the mobile 128-GB eUFS for smartphones in January 2015. Now with the launch of the automotive eUFS, the company has become the first chip maker that can mass produce it, moving a step closer to lead the eUFS sector.

The new eUFS solution by Samsung Electronics meets the standards required for automotive memory, which should last longer than that used in smartphones and be more resistant to heat, shock and vibrations, the company said in a statement.

The company also claimed its eUFS is optimized for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), dashboards and infotainment systems that power smart cars.

The 128-GB automotive eUFS boasts the fastest data transfer speed for an embedded memory. Its sequential reading speed is about 3.4 times faster than eMMC 5.0 solutions at 850 megabytes per second (MB/s), while its random reading speed is about 6.4 times faster at 45,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS). It also offers double capacity while maintaining the same size as the eMMC 5.0, the company said.

Configured on the latest JEDEC UFS 2.1 standard, the Samsung eUFS delivers superior system reliability by supporting advanced data refreshing and temperature notification, features required to meet the next-generation UFS 3.0 standard, according to the company.

Data refreshing is a process of periodically transferring data to new memory cells to extend the storage period. This prolongs the memory lifespan and boosts its reliability, which is crucial for automotive memory applications.

Car engines generate a lot of heat while driving but the new eUFS is equipped with a temperature sensor inside the controller to ensure reliable thermal management, the company said.

By Lee Dong-in

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