JEDEC standard setting organization has announced the publication of key updates to its universal flash storage (UFS) standard. Specifically tailored for mobile and computing systems requiring high performance and low power consumption, the new UFS v1.1 standard is an update to the v1.0 standard published in 2011. UFS v1.1 (JESD220A) contains important amendments and references to the latest related MIPI alliance specifications.

Gartner forecasts that by 2014, there will be over 70 billion mobile applications downloads every year, with an increasing focus on enterprise applications, creating an ongoing demand for enhanced storage solutions. UFS v1.1 continues to build on JEDEC flash memory storage standards designed to help address this demand. To allow for easy transition from eMMC technology, UFS v1.1 has implemented functionality that are compatible with eMMC v4.51 command protocol improvements such as Context ID (grouping different memory transactions under a single ID so the device can understand that they are related), and Data Tag (tagging specific write transactions so they can be prioritized and targeted to a memory region with higher performance and better reliability).

To achieve the highest performance and most power efficient data transport, JEDEC UFS aligns with industry–leading specifications from the MIPI Alliance to form its interconnect layer. This collaboration continues with UFS v1.1, which supports the M-PHYTM and UniProSM specifications. Recently published, the newest UniPro specification defines a universal chip-to-chip data transport protocol, providing a common tunnel for higher-level protocols. The updated M-PHY interface is designed as the primary physical interface (PHY layer) for the UniPro specification, and is a high speed serial interface. The next generation M-PHY reaches 2.9Gb/s per lane with up-scalability to 5.8Gb/s per lane.

The JEDEC has also published UFS v1.1 host controller interface (JESD223A) standard that defines a standard host controller interface on which system designers can create a common host controller software driver layer to work with UFS host controller hardware from different manufacturers. The HCI functionality also enables higher performance and power efficiency by minimizing the involvement of the host processor in the operation of the flash storage subsystem.

“JEDEC intends to continue to enhance UFS to meet the needs of the industry, and the publication of UFS v1.1 and UFS HCI v1.1 underscore a firm commitment from memory manufacturers and leading consumer device and mobile OEMs for UFS,” said Mian Quddus, chairman of the JEDEC board of directors and the committee for embedded memory storage and removable memory cards.

Tags: UFS, JEDEC, NAND, Flash