14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung has just announced another breakthrough in advanced memory technology with the launch of the world's first 256GB embedded memory based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0.
According to Samsung, the new memory chip is twice as fast as the previous generation, which is now embedded into Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge smartphones.
The 128GB UFS memory was announced in February 2015, but the South Korean company managed to double the capacity and speed of UFS memory in just one year.
But let's take a look at the raw numbers as announced by Samsung. First of all, the new memory chip is said to handle up to 45,000 and 40,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reading and writing respectively.
Twice as fast, double the storage
If we do the math, we notice that it's more than two times faster than the 19,000 and 14,000 IOPS of the previous generation of UFS memory.
For sequential reading, the new 256GB UFS benefits from two lanes of data transfer to move data at up to 850MB/s, which is almost twice as fast as a standard SATA SSD used in PCs.
In regards with the sequential writing, Samsung announced that its new 256GB UFS supports up to 260MB/s, which is about three times faster than high-performance external microSD cards.
Because of the technology used inside the 256GB UFS, the memory chip now supports seamless Ultra HD video playback and multitasking functionality on smartphones with larger screens.
Samsung suggests that we should be able to watch 4K Ultra HD movies on split screen while searching image files or downloading video clips.
Furthermore, Samsung claims that with the rise of USB 3.0 support that has been adopted by many handset manufacturers, the interface in the UFS will allow sending a 5GB-equivalent full HD video in 12 seconds.
Last but not least, the South Korean company states that its new UFS memory chips are very small, even smaller than an external microSD card.