September 14, 2007 – A group of memory chipmakers and mobile device providers are backing a new industry spec for removable memory cards and embedded memory technologies, an effort spearheaded by standards org JEDEC Solid State Technology Association. The new “universal flash storage” (UFS) spec, expected to be finalized in 2009, will support very low access times for memories, reduce power consumption in consumer electronic devices, and enable high-speed access to large multimedia files.

The group is targeting significant reductions in performance levels for a range of consumer electronics applications, such as mobile handsets, digital still cameras, and other devices. For example, today a user might experience a three-minute access time for a 90min movie –UFS would reduce that to a few seconds. The UFS standard also aims to make flash cards interchangeable among the various CE devices.

All the participants chimed in with support in a statement:

– “Standardization of flash-based technologies will be crucial in determining how fast storage devices will be able to fully support industry demand for higher densities and faster transmission speeds.” Frankie Roohparver, VP of NAND development for Micron Technology.
– “This collaborative UFS effort will provide the industry with an open standard mass memory solution with optimal performance and interoperability.” Seppo Lamberg, SVP of technology platforms, Nokia
– Samsung’s Mobile handset division is happy to stand with our peers in support of standard technology for removable memory devices that will result in much simpler interconnectivity.” W.S. Lee, VP, handset R&D planning, telecommunication network business, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
– “[The proposed UFS standard] not only provides significantly higher bandwidth, but also supports low latency accesses and is positioned to provide an essential infrastructure in future mobile devices.” George Minassian, VP of strategic planning and systems engineering, wireless solutions division, Spansion
– “We think that this Universal Standard will cover the needs of the embedded and removable markets for many years.” Giuseppe Crisenza, NAND flash group GM, STMicroelectronics.