Samsung Electronics will reportedly use universal flash storage (UFS), a NAND Flash memory based next-generation memory standard, to its flagship smart phone model (Galaxy S6) to be released next year. The S. Korean company will start mass production of UFS 2.0 NAND Flash memory at the end of this year and will apply it to its new smart phone - possibly the Galaxty S6 - to be released next year, Electronic Times reports.

First published in February 2011, UFS is designed to be the most advanced specification for both embedded and removable Flash memory-based storage in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

UFS combines a solid state drive (SSD) and a low-power embedded multimedia card (eMMC). eMMC transmits data at the speed of 400 MB per second. Compared to this, UFS produces a speed of 1.2 GB per second, which is as many as three times faster.

UFS offers a low active power level and a near-zero idle power level, which, combined with the power-saving attributes of the related MIPI specifications, allows for significant reductions in device power consumption. UFS consumes the power of eMMC or even lower. Power consumption is said to be lowered down to almost half that of eMMC 5.0.

The UFS standard adopts the SCSI Architecture Model and command protocols supporting multiple commands with command queuing features and enabling a multi-thread programming paradigm. This differs from conventional Flash-based memory cards and embedded Flash solutions which process one command at a time, limiting random read/write access performance.

SK Hynix and Toshiba are also developing the technology. China’s Xiaomi is also installing UFS in its new products, so competition over market dominance is forecast to intensify next year.

Samsung is expected to gradually replace various internal and external memory cards, such as SD card and micro SD card, with UFS.