Jedec publishes standard for UFS 3.0 memory cards

Standards organization Jedec has published the JESD220-2B Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Card Extension Standard 3.0. The standard is closely related to that for internal UFS 3.0 memory chips. Separate UFS memory cards are hardly used, however.

In a press release, the organization writes that the standard for UFS 3.0 cards increases the maximum speed to 1.2 GB / s. That was 600MB / s with the previous version based on UFS 2.0. It is also possible to boot from UFS 3.0 memory cards. Jedec members can download the new standard, which is available for non-members for $ 75.

Furthermore, Jedec says that the new standard is less complex, because various functions have been removed that are not necessary for removable memory cards. These include Product State Awareness and Replay Protected Memory Block. Such functions are part of the UFS 3.0 standard for embedded memory chips.

UFS memory is common in smartphones. Almost all high-end smartphones use embedded chips based on the Universal Flash Storage standard. However, loose UFS memory cards have never penetrated the consumer market. Samsung announced UFS memory cards from 32GB to 256GB in 2016, but Samsung doesn’t make phones that fit. Samsung does have a Chromebook that accepts UFS cards and Nvidia’s Jetson AGX Xavier also supports UFS cards.

Jedec states that the UFS memory cards are interesting for smartphones, video cameras, drones and, for example, infotainment systems in cars. The cards have about the same size as the MicroSD cards, which are frequently used in consumer electronics.

On paper, UFS memory cards are much faster than the MicroSD cards available until now. The fastest MicroSDXC cards achieve read and write speeds of around 300MB / s. In 2018, the SD Association announced the MicroSD Express standard. It works with the PCIe 3.0 interface and allows speeds of up to 985MB / s. Such tickets have not yet appeared.