Toshiba With Qualcomm for Universal Flash Storage V2.0 Solution

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. is working with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, to bring Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver2.0 solutions to tablets and smartphones powered by the Snapdragon 805 processors.

The solutions are anticipated to go into production in the second quarter of 2014.

UFS, the next generation of embedded memory device to e-MMC, drives a boost in performance – a requirement for tablets and smartphones. These applications require high performance to produce a good user experience, such as for browsing and 4K video, at low power to extend battery life. With improved data processing speeds in host chipsets and wider bandwidths for wireless connectivity, demand continues to grow for large density, high-performance memory that supports high resolution video.

“UFS offers higher performance and a number of other features that are valuable in the growing mobile industry,” said Raj Talluri, SVP of product management, Qualcomm. “As the world leader in next-generation mobile technologies, Qualcomm Technologies is always looking to stay on the cutting edge, and Toshiba is a proven innovator in NAND flash technology, including UFS.“

Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processors, which are designed to interface to Toshiba’s UFS memory, will be aligned to the high end of their roadmap for tablets and smartphones, with e-MMC continuing to cover mid-range and low-end products in the near term.

“High-end smartphones and tablets will be the first to adopt and take advantage of the performance benefits of UFS over e-MMC,” noted Scott Nelson, SVP, TAEC’s memory business unit. “As UFS migrates to mid-range products, the embedded mobile memory market will transition from e-MMC to UFS, though e-MMC will likely continue to support the low-end for some time.“

Toshiba, has been shipping samples of its 64GB embedded NAND flash memory equipped with a UFS Ver1.1 interface since early 2013, primarily to enable chipset and OS vendors to develop the capabilities to utilize UFS. UFS Ver2.0, which will be available for mass production 2Q 2014, is designed for a range of digital consumer products – including smartphones and tablets.

“By designing their chipset to interface with Toshiba’s UFS and harnessing the performance advantages of this new interface, Qualcomm Technologies continues to demonstrate their leadership role in introducing solutions,” said Nelson.

Devices are scheduled to go into production in 2Q 2014, and it is anticipated that additional chipsets utilizing UFS will follow.