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Samsung Unveils World's First UFS Storage Cards, Could Replace MicroSD (pcworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the first-of-its-kind dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Samsung has unveiled the world's first UFS card that could one day replace microSD cards in devices. The UFS card is based on the Universal Flash Storage 1.0 Card Extension standard and will be available in capacities from 32GB to 256GB. With a UFS card, users will be able to read 5GB of data, or a full resolution movie file, in 10 seconds, Samsung claims. For comparison, a UHS-1 microSD card would take 50 seconds to do the same. UFS cards will be able to fit into a wide range of devices like smartphones, tablets, cameras, and drones, but the devices will need a specific UFS card slot, which could take some time. Samsung claims the 256GB UFS card has a sequential read speed of 530MBps. The random read speed is 20 times faster than a microSD card. The sequential write speed is about 170MBps, which Samsung estimates is two times faster than microSD cards. The random write speed is 350 times faster than microSD, Samsung claims. The Universal Flash Storage 1.0 Card Extension standard is intended to replace the eMMC standard, which is used in low-cost laptops and Chromebooks. Samsung didn't disclose pricing or availability for the UFS storage cards. It's worth noting that Toshiba does also make UFS storage cards, but they have yet to release any based on the UFS 1.0 Card Extension standard.

5 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. The great thing about standards... by sjbe · · Score: 5, Informative

    Samsung has unveiled the world's first UFS card that could one day replace microSD cards in devices.

    Great. Another incompatible storage card standard... Just what everybody was asking for.

    UFS cards will be able to fit into a wide range of devices like smartphones, tablets, cameras, and drones, but the devices will need a specific UFS card slot, which could take some time.

    Of course if can fit into a lot of devices if those devices are designed for it. Would it have killed them to make it backwards compatible with the hardware that already exists? I'm sure it has all sorts of lovely features but is it really too much to ask for the designers of this shit to think about future proofing their designs as well as backwards compatibility?

    1. Re:The great thing about standards... by bloodhawk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What possible incentive is there for them to make it backwards compatible. They want to sell and obsolete as many devices as fast possible, one way to do that is with constantly changing and evolving the standards ensuring enough improvements to make a replacement desirable. Future proofing means lost sales. I don't agree with this strategy but it makes good business sense. Hell they don't even provide OS upgrades for most smartphones.

    2. Re:The great thing about standards... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ould it have killed them to make it backwards compatible with the hardware that already exists?

      Ehhhh I'm just not that bothered about this one. The way I (and I suspect many) people use SD and especially micro SD cards is kinda fire and forget. In other words, there's some device that needs one, so I decide what size I want and shove it in there. Mostly it remains there for the life of the device.

      My the time the devie life ends, the storage size is kinda small so the card usually winds up in a box waiting for an application which will never arrive.

      I odn't always do that, but compared to (say) USB storage which I use a lot between devices, SD cards mostly stay put. So, obsolecence of the format won't really change much in practice.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  2. Re:The irony.. by niftydude · · Score: 5, Informative

    They do.

    MicroSD slot is back in the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.

    Looks like they realized dropping it in the S6 line was a mistake.

    --
    You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
  3. Re:The irony.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Given removable storage and finite data volumes on mobile plans, cloud storage is a niche requirement.