Western Digital Flash Innovations Unlock Powerful New Experiences for Next-Generation 5G Smartphone Users
Western Digital Corp. today announced its second-generation UFS 3.1 storage solution for 5G smartphones. The new Western Digital iNAND® MC EU551 delivers the high-performance storage consumers need to be able to use their phones for emerging applications like ultra-high-resolution cameras, AR/VR, gaming and 8K video.
IDC expects 5G smartphone shipments to account for more than 40% of global volume in 2021 and grow to 69% in 2025. As networks continue to expand available bandwidth and offer lower latency to enable new user experiences, Western Digital’s iNAND solutions deliver the high-capacity, high-performance embedded storage needed to power these exciting new applications.
Emphasizing on the data surge on smartphones, Jaganathan Chelliah, Director, Marketing – India, Western Digital said, “The COVID19 pandemic has impacted consumer habits drastically. The new normal hastened the Indian consumers and businesses to adopt digital technologies. Consumers have increased dependence on gadgets to maintain continuity in personal and professional lives. With the advancement in technology like high-speed cellular networks, sensor innovation and AI, we are observing a growth in the average capacity in smartphones. This is registering the need for higher performance to handle new multimedia capabilities like creating video content, accessing OTT platforms, etc. using smartphones. To power these emerging data-rich applications, our UFS 3.1 iNAND solutions cater to the need for high-capacity and high-performance embedded storage, ensuring faster streaming experience to the users.”
Khalid Wani, Director, Sales – India, Western Digital, added, “The last 15 months has changed the entire content consumption landscape drastically, especially for smartphone users. This has created a deluge of data being created and consumed, majority of it through mobile devices, leading to requirement for high-capacity embedded storage, which also delivers high-performance and ensures faster data access. The first-ever iNAND® MC EU551 mobile storage device, built on latest flash-based UFS 3.1 platform promises to deliver improvement in read and write performance, faster application launch time and reduced boot-up time, giving consumers a better workload experience.”
The iNAND® MC EU551 mobile storage device is the first product built on Western Digital’s new UFS 3.1 platform, first announced on May 26 at the company’s Flash Perspective event. Leveraging faster NAND, a faster controller, and an improved firmware design, the iNAND MC EU551 delivers the following improvements over the previous generation, with up to a:
- 100% improvement in random read performance and up to 40% on random writes, to help support mixed workload experiences like running multiple applications simultaneously
- 90% improvement in sequential writes to help realize the new 5G and Wi-Fi 6 download speed potential. This gives consumers a better experience when streaming rich media files such as 8K video, as well as improved performance for applications like burst mode photography
- 30% improvement in sequential reads lets applications launch faster with shorter boot-up time, and enables faster upload speeds
The device is designed to meet the JEDEC UFS 3.1 specification requirements and uses the latest Write Booster technology based on Western Digital’s 7th generation SmartSLCTM. It also features Host Performance Booster version 2.0, further combining the latest advancements in the standard.
Ecosystem Support
The iNAND MC EU551 is the latest addition to the iNAND family, which has been trusted by all major smartphone manufacturers around the world for more than a decade. As part of its work in the mobile ecosystem, Western Digital continues to work with leading system on SoC designers to qualify its UFS 3.1 solution for smartphone reference designs that offer a pre-tested solution for manufacturers to integrate.
Availability
The Western Digital iNAND MC EU551 UFS 3.1 embedded flash drive (EFD) is sampling now with volume availability planned in July 2021. The storage solution is available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities.