Samsung will mass produce 256GB UFS 2.0 memory chips for high-end smartphones

Samsung has announced that it’s started work on mass producing 256GB embedded memory chips based on the UFS 2.0 standard. UFS 2.0 is a high speed memory standard that we’re seeing in high-end devices like the iPhone 6s , Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge , Xiaomi Mi 5 , and so on. The high-density chips will boast of blisteringly fast read speeds of 850Mbps and write speeds of a comparatively lower 250Mbps. You might wonder as to what one might do with that bandwidth, but all of it is in aid of an envisioned future where everyone is using VR, watching 360 degree video and if nothing else, 4K video. Requiring enormous amounts of space to store all that data makes 256GB memory inevitable, but what’s also inevitable is the requirement for data bandwidth that those higher bit-rate media files would require. In other words, if you’re going to be recording 4K, 360-degree or VR video, you’re going to need to be able to record all that data as fast as it comes in. UFS 2.0 memory will also allow you to transfer data to and from your phones as fast as possible. Samsung claims that all hardware being equal, you’ll be able to transfer 5GB files in 12 seconds over USB 3.0. We’re witnessing the dawn of the 256GB smartphone. Hopefully, we’ll also witness the end to the 16GB smartphone too.