Ready for it? 2018 smartphones will have up to 512GB of ultra-fast storage memory

by Luis D. / Mar 09, 2017, 8:56 AM

Ready for it? 2018 smartphones will have up to 512GB of ultra-fast storage memory

Yes, smartphones are already so fast we have grown accustomed to it. But technology dictates that they will be getting even faster... unless someone established an upper limit and we hit the ceiling. It could happen... like a 100 years from now, or so. But the near future holds no such promises. Rather, it sees UFS storage for smartphones and other mobile devices capable of read/write performance of up to 50,000 / 40,000 IOPS – available as early as next year! For perspective, consider that current UFS memory solutions hang around 19,000 / 14,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second).

First used by Samsung inside the Galaxy S6 series, UFS storage enabled read and write speeds way beyond the eMMC standard's possibilities. A company by the name of Silicon Motion Technology has managed to improve the technology and announce a line of UFS 2.1 memory controllers. In addition to the outrageous speeds listed above, they support memory modules of up to 512GB capacity and boast improved power consumption. Compared to the eMMC 5.1 memory that's still prevalent in non-flagship devices, UFS 2.1 is up to three times faster. It is also expected to supplant eMMC technology completely in the next five years.

Production of the new UFS 2.1 controllers will begin later this year. They are currently being sampled to "select OEM partners."

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source: DigiTimes

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33 Comments

1. sgodsell

Posts: 7209; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

This ultimately means smartphones and phablets should have the ability to have split screens and the ability to cast your display to a TV or monitor. Because with that much storage those devices have officially put on the big boy pants, and are blurring the line between desktop and smartphone. Only thing missing is the desktop apps running on smartphones.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:05 AM 1

18. krystian

Posts: 423; Member since: Mar 16, 2016

What do you think Microsoft is doing? They stopped fighting the current smartphone war and have been designing their OS for the future.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 10:37 AM 1

29. L0n3n1nja

Posts: 1549; Member since: Jul 12, 2016

Every Samsung device I've owned since my Note 2 in 2012 has been able to do that already.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 5:39 PM 0

2. notfair

Posts: 719; Member since: Jan 30, 2017

meanwhile in 2017 iphones and androids are sold at a base of 32 GB or less...

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:06 AM 6

31. Leo_MC

Posts: 7204; Member since: Dec 02, 2011

When you have all your heavy data in the cloud, 32 GB is more than enough (my Windows C: is only 30 GB).

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 11:04 PM 0

33. ebilcake

Posts: 1227; Member since: Jul 16, 2016

No progress in this area at all, because dips**ts keep buying them.

posted on Mar 12, 2017, 6:07 AM 0

3. kerginaldo17 unregistered

IPhones no expansions of memory.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:12 AM 6

15. bucky

Posts: 3776; Member since: Sep 30, 2009

Haven't needed expandable memory since about 2012...nice try.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:50 AM 0

21. trojan_horse

Posts: 5868; Member since: May 06, 2016

He wasn't talking about you specifically, so get off his back. There are other users who definitely need expandable storage.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 11:57 AM 9

30. L0n3n1nja

Posts: 1549; Member since: Jul 12, 2016

Don't need more than 16Gb of storage either, but it's sure nice to have more. Just like it's nice to have expandable storage, whether it's my phone, tablet, PC, or camera.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 5:41 PM 2

4. kerginaldo17 unregistered

IPhones no expansions of memory.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:12 AM 1

5. kiko007

Posts: 7493; Member since: Feb 17, 2016

So nice you had to say it twice?

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:14 AM 0

14. kerginaldo17 unregistered

Lol..

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:42 AM 1

6. surethom

Posts: 1662; Member since: Mar 04, 2009

But still far to many mid-range android phones with sell with 8gb & 16gb, 32gb should be minimum for all phones over £120

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:15 AM 2

7. tokuzumi

Posts: 1865; Member since: Aug 27, 2009

One step closer to using your phone as your home computer. It kind of works now, but not really well. Microsoft has the best implementation at this time, but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:15 AM 1

17. rocker91

Posts: 88; Member since: Dec 09, 2016

Nah it's nowhere close enough to replace my computer as you said I'm expecting Microsoft to pull a rabbit out of the hat

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 10:17 AM 1

8. Ordinary

Posts: 2454; Member since: Apr 23, 2015

How much faster is UFS 2.1 compared to 2.0? Anybody knows?

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:18 AM 1

23. vincelongman

Posts: 5677; Member since: Feb 10, 2013

UFS 2.1 didn't actually bring any speed improvementshttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160404006026/en/JEDEC-Updates-Universal-Flash-Storage-UFS-Related Both the UFS 2.0 and 2.1 standards max out at 1.2GB/s But never UFS 2.1 storage will still be faster than UFS 2.0 since they will be using newer and faster NAND, and therefore get closer the limit of 1.2GB/s

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 1:39 PM 1

9. Mreveryphone

Posts: 1817; Member since: Apr 22, 2014

The price would be astronomical... I worked with a Neurosurgeon that had a special made iPhone 7 plus with a terabyte of storage installed... Price was ridiculously stupid...

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:25 AM 1

24. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Because he bought it at the reatil level and not the OEM level. 256GB of NAND costs less than $5.00USD on the open market for OEM pricing. This is based on a purchase I assume in the "millions" http://www.dramexchange.com/ On this site, they list DRAM costs which include standard laptop chips cost and eMMC and NAND. I believe these are just for the chips themselves. This doesn't include whatever cost to make them into flash storage for example.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 2:14 PM 1

27. Mreveryphone

Posts: 1817; Member since: Apr 22, 2014

His money is very long, plus he doesn't have time to research things like this...

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 3:03 PM 2

11. fyah_king unregistered

I can't wait for 2019 with 1TB of storage in my phone.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 9:37 AM 1

25. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

I wont know how to act with 1TB in a phone...At that point hopefully we have tablets an phones that run full OS's in a sandbox or whatever. My new laptop ca,e with a 512GB SSD on the NGFF and an it retails for about $250 which was cheap. But I went online an got a faster Samsung one and it was $350 for 1TB. For a phone, it seems it would cost less, because the FLASH is mounted directly to the phones PCD vs being mounted to a separate PCB or inside a plastic case like SDCARDS. Considering the fact OEM's pay less than $5.00 for the stuff -http://www.dramexchange.com/ - prices should be cheaper. But see all the OEM's simply charge this one high price for extra storage. Paying $100 to go from 64GB to 128GB is BS and it is a practice us consumers really need to side together on against OEM's. Because for $100 phone could have several 128GB storage cards inside because of what they pay. I did watch a video one where a guy too his iPhone apart and removed the storage and put one with more capacity onto it.

posted on Mar 09, 2017, 2:23 PM 1

32. mr.reckless562

Posts: 162; Member since: Dec 22, 2016

cool, do u have link to video? i always thought of having this done to a phone. obviously id need to commission the work to a more experienced solderer, but then id have a better phone 4 cheaper still.