New Flash Memeory Card Standard Coming

Written by Adam Gosling

Monday, 17 September 2007

A group of vendors including phone maker, Nokia and memory maker, Samsung Electronics, have agreed to support a new standard for removable and embedded flash memory cards being standardized by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association (JEDEC), a leading open-standards organization in the semiconductor industry. Other companies signing up to support the new format are Sony Ericsson, Spansion, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments One of the main features of the new specification, dubbed Universal Flash Storage (UFS), is that it fills the need for a universal memory sepcifcation that eliminates the need for adaptors to accommodate different removable memory card sizes. It is hoped UFS will provide consumers with the convenience of a unified removable memory card that can be shared among various mobile, portable and other CE devices without the need for any adaptors. Widespread demand for higher densities and higher performance, plus the surging popularity of multimedia content, is accelerating the need for advanced memory solutions as removable card or embedded formats, says the group in supporting the new spec. UFS will provide a revolutionary leap towards supporting very low access times required for memories, as well as enabling high-speed access to large multimedia files, while reducing power-consumption in consumer electronic (CE) devices. The target performance level is expected to be a significant advancement beyond that of the varied flash cards popular today. Today, users experience a three-minute access time for a 90-minute (4 Gigabyte) high-definition movie; with the new standard, this would be reduced to a few seconds. Major applications such as mobile handsets, digital still cameras and other CE devices will benefit from the convenience of a universal open standard based specification that is intended to reduce the time-consuming process of enabling interoperability among the various types of removable and embedded memory solutions at the system level. The UFS standard is expected to be finalized in 2009. Related news items Major Players To Test WiMAX Interoperability -26/09/2007 Broadcom Enthusisam for 802.11n Wavers -06/09/2007 ASUS A686/696 GPS PDA -23/08/2007 D-Link Ships Half A Million Draft N Devices -14/08/2007 Real Savings From Mobile Deployments: IDC -05/08/2007 Newer news items New Extneral Drives From Toshiba -07/07/2008 Older news items Solid State Drives Will Find A Home: IDC -12/08/2007 Greedy iPhones Gobble The Flash -18/07/2007 Flash Giant Offers 1.8 inch SSD -25/06/2007 Spinning Disks Aren't Standing Still -14/05/2007 Lexar Express SSD Has Backup Intent -01/05/2007 Tag This Now: