KIOXIA Europe announced it has begun sampling new Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver 4.1 embedded memory devices designed for automotive applications. Designed to meet the rigorous demands of next-generation in-vehicle systems, these new devices provide significant performance, flexibility, and diagnostic enhancements – all powered by KIOXIA’s generation 8 BICS FLASH 3D flash memory and in-house designed controller technology.
Available in 128 gigabytes (GB), 256GB, 512GB and 1 terabyte (TB), the new UFS 4.1 devices are engineered to fit the needs of infotainment, ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistant System), telematics, domain controllers, and vehicle computers. They meet AEC-Q100/104[3] Grade 2 standards, supporting case temperature up to 115°C.
Elevating the performance from KIOXIA’s UFS 3.1 generation, the new UFS 4.1 (512 GB) devices deliver:
- Approximately 2.1 times sequential read performance
- Approximately 2.5 times sequential write performance
- Approximately 2.1 times random read performance
- Approximately 3.7 times random write performance
These improvements provide a more responsive user experience in data-intensive automotive environments.
Key features include:
- Compliant with the UFS 4.1 specification, which includes WriteBooster related extensions such as WriteBooster Buffer Resizing and Pinned Partial Flush Mode which provides better flexibility for optimal performance. UFS4.1 is backward compatible with UFS4.0 and UFS3.1
- Enhanced diagnostic capabilities, including a newly added vendor-specific device health descriptor, simplifying device status monitoring and predictive maintenance
- Uses generation 8 BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory
UFS Ver. 4.1 devices by KIOXIA integrate the company’s BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and a controller in a JEDEC-standard package. These new UFS devices are built with KIOXIA’s generation 8 BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory. This generation introduces CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology—an innovation that represents a step-change in flash memory design. By directly bonding the CMOS circuitry to the memory array, CBA technology enables major gains in power efficiency, performance, and density.
“Specifically designed for automotive environments, the Automotive UFS Ver. 4.1 devices from KIOXIA offer the automotive-grade, higher performance and efficiency required for the implementation of advanced capabilities in infotainment, ADAS, domain controllers, and other vehicle computing applications,” said Axel Störmann, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Memory and SSD products, KIOXIA Europe.
