The next generation of flash storage is on the horizon, courtesy of JEDEC, the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council. They’ve just announced the new Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 5.0 standard, which is set to give a serious performance bump to future gadgets.
This isn’t just a minor refresh. UFS 5.0 is squarely focused on boosting speed and energy efficiency, which is brilliant news for power-hungry applications like AI systems, advanced mobile devices, and edge computing. And in a welcome move for everyone, it’s been confirmed that UFS 5.0 will be backwards compatible with hardware originally designed for the UFS 4.x family. So, your next phone won’t necessarily need a complete overhaul to take advantage.
Now, for the bit that really turns heads: the speed. The new standard nearly doubles the sequential performance, delivering a hefty 10.8 GB/s of bandwidth. To put that in perspective, the current UFS 4.0 and 4.1 standards top out at around 5.8 GB/s. That’s a huge leap forward.
Beyond the raw speed, UFS 5.0 packs a few clever tricks to improve reliability. A new link equalisation feature works to maintain a cleaner, more stable signal. There’s also a dedicated power rail that helps isolate noise between the physical and memory layers, which should make everything a bit more robust. And for good measure, they’ve thrown in inline hashing to add an extra layer of protection for your user data.
As for when we’ll see it in our hands, JEDEC hasn’t given a firm timeline. As always, we’ll have to play the waiting game while storage manufacturers start production and tech companies begin designing it into their upcoming devices.