Embedded flash memory devices enable on-device AI

KIOXIA Europe GmbH‘s UFS⁽¹⁾5.0 embedded flash memory solutions is designed to deliver the performance, efficiency and capacity required for the next generation of AI-enabled mobile and edge devices.

Built on the latest JEDEC UFS 5.0 standard, KIOXIA’s new devices leverage the MIPI M-PHY v6.0 physical layer and UniPro v3.0 protocol, including HS-Gear6 operation, to support theoretical interface speeds of up to 46.6 Gb/s per lane and approximately 10.8 GB/s of effective dual-lane read/write performance.

As AI workloads continue moving onto devices, storage performance is becoming increasingly important. Large language models, multimodal AI, advanced imaging and real-time inference require significantly faster movement of data between storage and compute.

Until now, UFS read performance has been a limiting factor for increasingly sophisticated on-device AI, constraining how quickly large language models and other AI workloads can access data. KIOXIA UFS 5.0 helps remove these bottlenecks, enabling faster application loading, greater responsiveness and an outstanding user experience across on-device AI applications when compared to UFS 4.1.

KIOXIA UFS 5.0 solutions combine an in-house developed UFS 5.0 controller with KIOXIA BiCS FLASH generation 8 3D flash memory, to deliver significant improvements in performance, power efficiency and packaging compared to the previous generation of KIOXIA product⁽²⁾, including:

• Sequential read performance of up to 10 GB/s⁽³⁾
• Sequential write performance of up to 9.0 GB/s⁽⁴⁾
• Enhanced power efficiency compared to the previous generation⁽²⁾  
• Enhanced thermal management
• Compact 7.5 × 13 mm BGA package, smaller than the previous-generation product⁽²⁾
• Available in 1 TB and 512 GB capacities

While optimised for premium smartphones featuring on-device AI, KIOXIA UFS 5.0 is also well-suited for AI-enabled tablets, gaming systems, AR/VR devices, robotics, smart security cameras and industrial edge applications that require fast local storage for data-intensive AI workloads.

“On-device AI redefines what users expect from future mobile and edge devices; manufacturers need storage solutions that keep pace with these increasing AI workloads”, said Axel Störmann, VP & CTO, KIOXIA Europe GmbH. “As AI workloads require fast, efficient access to data, KIOXIA UFS 5.0 delivers the speed, efficiency and capacity necessary to build these next-generation intelligent devices.”  

KIOXIA continues to advance its UFS portfolio with flash memory innovations designed to meet the growing demand for higher capacity, greater performance and improved efficiency in AI-enabled mobile and edge applications and will demonstrate its UFS 5.0 embedded flash memory solutions at FMS: the Future of Memory and Storage.