Samsung Unveils Successor To microSD Cards

Megalith

Megalith

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Samsung has announced the world’s first UFS (Universal Flash Storage) memory cards, which offer 530 MB/s read speeds and 170 MB/s write speeds. Embedded UFS technology is already being used in some newer devices, but there are no products that yet support the cards as removable storage.

The UFS cards have sequential read speeds of up to 530 megabytes per second — five times faster than the best microSD cards. That means reading a 5 gigabyte, full HD movie in roughly 10 seconds, says Samsung, compared to a UHS-1 microSD card which manages the same feat in around 50 seconds. Write speeds are also significantly improved, with rates of up to 170 MB/s. That's nearly double the performance of the very fastest microSDs (this SanDisk Extreme Pro card, for example, has write speeds of up to 100 MB/s), but seven or eight times faster than the cards recommended to non-professionals.
 
They use a different form factor (slightly different in terms of how it locks into the socket) and they also use a different contact surface on the backside as seen in the photos so, they could be compatible with microSD cards (see the note below). It's expected that the Note 7 might have a UFS socket but that's yet to be known officially so far - one things for certain: since this is yet another new form-factor and requires yet another new socket to make use of it that means with Samsung being the creator they could literally own the market for this higher performing portable storage. Nobody can force them to license it out to other manufacturers so, who knows what the hell is going to happen from here on out.

Personally, any single proprietary (for the moment since we don't know about the potential licensing) storage device like this is a bad idea in my opinion. One needs to look no further than Sony's failed Media Stick crap with all its various sub-formats (Pro, ProDuo, etc) and see where this could go if Samsung does decide to keep it locked down to themselves only.

NOTE:

As an edit, there is the potential that UFS sockets could be backwards compatible for microSD cards - if you look at the UFS card contact points it does leave a space across the top edge where the contact points on a traditional microSD card could be. If that's the case then a UFS socket is going to be a rather complex piece of hardware with shitload of leaf contacts inside the socket to mate properly. The two along the edge of the card are where the ground contact points are on a traditional microSD card after closer examination.

Didn't want people to think that no, a microSD card won't work in a UFS slot. We'll find out soon enough I suppose. ;)
 
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Tiberian said:
Nobody can force them to license it out to other manufacturers so, who knows what the hell is going to happen from here on out.
Click to expand...

Considering it's called "Universal" flash storage I would imagine that they'd license it out or make it open source. But of course who the hell knows. I do sort of see it happening though, they can still make good money on selling the cards.

However, on the downside, it looks impossible to make a MicroSD/UFS slot as the UFS contacts would interfere with the MicroSD contacts.
 
Proprietary is bad (Sony, as mentioned, has a bad history of making and sticking to proprietary garbage that no one ever wanted) but Samsung hasn't proven themselves to be as bad as others in that regard yet. Let them innovate, see how they handle it, then make the call...plenty of technologies started out proprietary and ended up open-sourced/free-to-use as the tech matured. We do have a need for faster removable storage so hopefully they will behave responsibly. The "chicken little" act is unnecessary when the tech has just been announced though...just wait.
 
This should provide a better visual of the differences:

UFS_vs_micro_SD.png
 
4 extra pins, they could have left the 8 up front and the new 4 in the back so it could be backwards compatible at a lower speed.
 
Unbelievable......they couldn't make it SMALLER!!?!???!

My biggest dissatisfaction with SD cards has been the readers. It doesn't matter how fast the card is, here's your 10MB/s ya looser.

So hopefully this will set a new minimum standard for manufacturers and they will be as fast as initial specs are given. I'm impressed if they are getting this kind of speed out of a single NAND package.
 
Well that I didn't know, learn something new every day I suppose. 5 years from announcement as a standard to sorta-kinda implementation (since it's not out just yet), that's one damned long period of time to get a standardized piece of tech out of R&D into use, geez. I know some things can take even longer but wow, that's a chunk.
 
Tiberian said:
This should provide a better visual of the differences:
Click to expand...

That picture seems to suggest that the new cards are about the same size as a MicroSD card. I wonder what it is that allows the UFS card to have 256GB storage when the MicroSD cards seem to top out at 200GB due to lack of room for additional silicon.

IMHO, they should have stuck with MiniSD for card sizes. MicroSD is too small and too easy to lose. At least with MiniSD that additional 80-100% size could mean additional capacity.
 
What they need to do is put a bunch of slots on motherboards so you can use those instead.
 
rat said:
That picture seems to suggest that the new cards are about the same size as a MicroSD card. I wonder what it is that allows the UFS card to have 256GB storage when the MicroSD cards seem to top out at 200GB due to lack of room for additional silicon.

IMHO, they should have stuck with MiniSD for card sizes. MicroSD is too small and too easy to lose. At least with MiniSD that additional 80-100% size could mean additional capacity.
Click to expand...


The picture is deceiving, the new card is 1" thick.
 
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Tiberian said:
They use a different form factor (slightly different in terms of how it locks into the socket) and they also use a different contact surface on the backside as seen in the photos so, they could be compatible with microSD cards (see the note below). It's expected that the Note 7 might have a UFS socket but that's yet to be known officially so far - one things for certain: since this is yet another new form-factor and requires yet another new socket to make use of it that means with Samsung being the creator they could literally own the market for this higher performing portable storage. Nobody can force them to license it out to other manufacturers so, who knows what the hell is going to happen from here on out.

Personally, any single proprietary (for the moment since we don't know about the potential licensing) storage device like this is a bad idea in my opinion. One needs to look no further than Sony's failed Media Stick crap with all its various sub-formats (Pro, ProDuo, etc) and see where this could go if Samsung does decide to keep it locked down to themselves only.

NOTE:

As an edit, there is the potential that UFS sockets could be backwards compatible for microSD cards - if you look at the UFS card contact points it does leave a space across the top edge where the contact points on a traditional microSD card could be. If that's the case then a UFS socket is going to be a rather complex piece of hardware with shitload of leaf contacts inside the socket to mate properly. The two along the edge of the card are where the ground contact points are on a traditional microSD card after closer examination.

Didn't want people to think that no, a microSD card won't work in a UFS slot. We'll find out soon enough I suppose. ;)
Click to expand...

Well, if they want this format to succeed past a limited exclusivity period, then they need to open it up to licensing. Otherwise, a competitor will do it with a competing open standard.

Backwards compatibility is also a must in my opinion. If the socket/supporting hardware isn't too expensive, manufacturers are likely to adopt it.

If Samsung is viewing this as an exclusive Sony-esque (like you said) for their devices, I think they may be grossly over estimating the demand for such speeds. Phones don't need it at the moment. DSLR's could likely make use of it. Near future action cams looking to push 4k60 could likely use it.
 
Well I was going on what I knew at the time of the post, a short time later pxc pointed out in post #8 that UFS is indeed a standard now (since early 2011) hence my comment above about how long it's taken for a company to finally create an actual product based on the standard.

I didn't know it was an actual JEDEC standard, now I do, and so you when you read this post. :D
 
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