Samsung Now Mass-Producing eMMC 5.0

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Here's new embedded memory for next-generation smartphones and tablets.

Samsung Electronics said on Friday that it has begun mass-producing the industry's first eMMC 5.0 chips – and the "world's fastest embedded memory" claims the company -- in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB densities. The devices are based on Samsung's 64 Gb 10 nm-class NAND flash technology, meaning the company used a process node somewhere between 10 nm and 20 nm.

Called the eMMC PRO, the new chips will come with Samsung's own NAND controller and firmware to provide a vertically integrated mobile DRAM solution. They feature an interface speed of 400 MB/s, and support the eMMC version 5.0 standard now nearing completion at JEDEC. They will also arrive in 11.5 x 13 mm packages, making them ideal for mobile devices where space on the PCB (printed circuit board) is extremely limited.

"With timely mass production of our ultra-fast eMMC PRO line-up offering a more than 10X performance increase over external memory cards, Samsung will accelerate the spread of high-end mobile devices as the market for devices with larger screens and more multimedia functionality expands even further,” said KyongMoo Mang, vice president of memory marketing.

Samsung said the 32 GB and 64 GB models have a random read speed of 7000 IOPS (inputs/outputs per second), and a random write speed of 7000 IOPS. They also read sequentially at 250 MB/s and write sequentially at 90 MB/s. By comparison, an external memory card may read at 24 MB/s and write at 12 MB/s. Samsung did not provide numbers for the 16 GB eMMC PRO device.

Samsung claimed that smartphones and tablets packed with these devices should experience "much faster multi-tasking, web-browsing, application downloading and file transfers." They're also "highly responsive to running large-file gaming and productivity applications," and will provide faster capture and playback of high-definition video.

"We will continue to provide advanced mobile memory solutions that allow users to enjoy high definition, large-volume content seamlessly, as we also strengthen technological cooperation with mobile devices manufacturers," Mang added.

Samsung also provides two other eMMC 5.0 "Class700" chips in 4 GB and 8 GB capacities that are presumably not in the "PRO" category.

Kevin Parrish
4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • The Grave Digger
    hhmm...seems promising
    Reply
  • fixxxer113
    I continue to be amazed by the progress in chip manufacturing. My first desktop PC had 64MB of RAM and a 10GB HDD which everyone thought was overkill at the time. Now, even a tiny MicroSD card can, according to the SDXC standard, achieve 2TB!! Hell, there are complete SoCs now that are waaaay more powerful than that PC and fit in a chip like the one in the picture...
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    Finally! My largest complaint about smartphones and tablets has been read/write speed from storage. 250MB/s is probably overkill for the CPUs in these devices, but the SD like speeds we have seen from current gen devices has been terrible. This will bring faster web browsing, boot times, file management, etc. This will also bring much more advanced features to phones and tablets such as the ability to do more photo and video editing on the device which is exciting.
    Reply
  • damianrobertjones
    Quite cool! Intel solved the performance with the last batch of Atom dual core processors but, while using my Dell Latitude 10, I often feel as if the eMMC could be faster.

    Here's to a new Quad Atom eMMC 5.0 Dell Latitude 10q
    Reply