JEDEC unveils UFS 5.0 storage standard with 10.8GB/s speeds for AI apps

The Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC), the organization that sets industry standards for semiconductor devices, has officially announced UFS 5.0, a new Universal Flash Storage standard that nearly doubles data transfer speeds to 10.8GB per second. The upgrade represents a significant leap from UFS 4.0’s 5.8GB per second speeds and is specifically designed to meet the demanding performance requirements of AI-powered mobile applications and computing systems.

What you should know: UFS 5.0 delivers substantial performance improvements while maintaining backward compatibility with existing hardware.

• The new standard reaches speeds of 10.8GB per second, compared to UFS 4.0’s 5.8GB per second introduced in 2022.
• JEDEC designed the upgrade specifically for “mobile applications and computing systems that demand high performance with low power consumption.”
• The standard maintains compatibility with UFS 4.x hardware, ensuring smoother transitions for manufacturers.

Key technical improvements: Beyond raw speed, UFS 5.0 introduces several enhancements for system integration and security.

• The standard provides “noise isolation between PHY and memory subsystem, easing system integration,” according to JEDEC.
• It supports inline hashing for improved security of user data.
• The upgrade delivers better signal stability across devices.

In plain English: These technical improvements mean the storage system can better separate different components to reduce interference, automatically protect your data through built-in security checks, and maintain more reliable connections between your device’s processor and storage.

The adoption timeline: Device manufacturers have historically been slow to implement new UFS standards, suggesting a gradual rollout.

• While Samsung introduced UFS 4.0 technology in 2023, Google’s Pixel 10 was the first Google phone to adopt the standard.
• JEDEC has not announced when UFS 5.0 will begin appearing in consumer devices.
• The pace of adoption will likely vary significantly between manufacturers, as seen with previous UFS upgrades.

Why this matters: The storage speed upgrade addresses growing computational demands from AI applications that require rapid data access and processing capabilities on mobile devices and computing systems.