UFS 3.1 specification released, bringing faster, cheaper and more energy-efficient UFS storage
Latest update time：2020-02-01
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JEDEC has released the UFS 3.1 specification (also known as JESD220E), which adds several features related to performance, power, cost reduction, and reliability to the standard.
These new features and functions are expected to improve actual device performance, minimize power consumption, potentially reduce the cost of high-capacity storage devices, and improve user experience.
Devices that comply with the UFS 3.1 standard continue to use MIPI's M-PHY 4.1 physical layer and 8b/10b line coding. MIPI's interconnect layer (IL) is based on the UniPro 1.8 protocol, with a data rate of HS-G4 (11.6 Gbps) per channel.
At the same time, the new version of the specification supports three new features:
write enhancement, deep sleep, and performance limit notification.
In addition, JEDEC has also released a technical specification for host performance improvement.
Modern SSDs already support all of these features, so the UFS 3.1 specification and HP make UFS storage devices functionally closer to SSDs.
As the name implies, Write Booster is designed to increase write speeds by using a pseudo-SLC cache.
Similar technology is already used in SSDs and various NVMe-powered micro storage devices (such as those used in Apple's iPhone/iPad).
Similarly, the SD 6.0 standard supports caching to achieve write performance targets.
The second important new feature of UFS 3.1 technology is Deep Sleep, a new low-power state for inexpensive UFS devices that use the same voltage regulator for storage and other functions.
Another new feature is Performance Limit Notification, which allows UFS devices to notify the host about performance limits when overheating.
Ultimately, avoiding throttling means more stable performance.
There is also Host Performance Booster, which caches UFS device logical-to-physical (LTP) address mappings in the system's DRAM to improve performance.
Mobile applications use a lot of random read operations, so LTP address mappings are frequently accessed.
At the same time, as the storage capacity of UFS devices is growing, the LTP size is also growing. By hosting LTP in fast system DRAM and providing LTP hints when sending I/O requests, random read performance can be improved and the cost of the UFS controller can be reduced.
Samsung has been working on the development of the HPB feature for several years and claims that it can improve random read performance by up to 67%.
To summarize, while UFS 3.1 compliant storage devices will continue to offer up to 23.2 bps (2.9GB/s) theoretical maximum bandwidth when using HS-G4, given the use of M-PHY 4.1 encoding, the bandwidth should be something like 1.875GB/s.
However, by implementing Write Booster and Host Performance Booster, the actual performance of upcoming UFS drives will be getting higher and higher.
At the same time, deep sleep will help extend the battery life of low-cost devices.
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