Samsung rolls out its first UFS memory cards

In this day and age, we as consumers are demanding more out of our personal electronics, including mobile phones, cameras, and drones, and naturally, the need for quicker, spacious storage grows along with it. Electronics giant Samsung was the first to dish out a taste of next-generation memory cards, unveiling its new Universal Flash Storage (UFS) cards that are the same size as the widely familiar microSDs. The difference is that they match the fast data speeds of solid state drives.

Based on the new JEDEC Universal Flash Storage 1.0 Card Extension Standard, which is aimed at increasing data transfer speeds and ending the need for different card type adapters, the new cards boast a sequential read speed of 530 megabytes per second (MB/s). To compare, this is up to five times faster than a typical microSD card, and more in line with SATA SSDs. 

The cards will come in 32-, 64-, 128-, and 256-GB variants. Image source: Samsung.

Samsung said its largest storage options mean it would take about 10 seconds to read a 5-GB high-definition movie, as opposed to 50 seconds for a UHS-1 microSD card with a 95-MB/s sequential read speed. As well as improving the sequential read rate, the new standard offers huge improvements in random read rate. For example, the 256-GB UFS card works at a rate of 40,000 IOPS, an improvement of more than 20 times compared to a typical microSD card’s random read rate of 1,800 IOPS.

Write speed has also gone up dramatically, according to Samsung, with 35,000 random IOPS from its 256 GB card. This means it’s 350 times faster than a typical microSD card, while its 170-MB/s sequential write speed is almost double what you’d get from something such as a SanDisk Extreme Pro.

When it comes to transferring your files to a computer, the new cards not only offer quicker download time, but less thumbnail-loading time, and less buffering from burst shooting. The card also supports multiple commands and command queuing, while separately dedicated paths allow concurrent reading and writing.

The cards will come in 32-, 64-, 128-, and 256-GB variants. Currently there is no launch date or pricing information available. 

Source: Samsung