Toshiba Memory America Adds UFS to Lineup of Embedded NAND Flash Memory Products for Automotive Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif., December 13, 2017 – Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA)*, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation and the maker of the industry’s first Universal Flash Storage (UFS) devices¹, today announced that it has begun the sampling of new Automotive UFS (JEDEC ver. 2.1 HS-G3) embedded memory solutions. TMA’s Automotive UFS supports a wide temperature range (-40°C to +105°C), meets AEC-Q100 Grade2² requirements and offers enhanced reliability capabilities that increasingly complex automotive applications require. The lineup consists of a wide range of capacities: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB.

The addition of Automotive UFS expands TMA’s lineup of embedded NAND flash memory products for automotive applications – joining its Automotive e-MMC³ family. The storage requirements for automotive applications continue to increase as entertainment & information systems and ADAS⁴ in cars become more sophisticated. UFS is well-suited to support the high-performance and density needs of these applications.

"Automotive storage requirements continue to expand across a variety of applications within the vehicle as they become more autonomous,” said Gregory Wong, president, Forward Insights. “This includes the memory used for ADAS recognition and decision components, V2X components, infotainment and clusters. Toshiba's broad density lineup of high-speed UFS memory for automotive is perfectly positioned to support this trend."

TMA’s new Automotive UFS devices are based on the company's 15nm process technology. By utilizing the UFS interface, significantly higher performance than Automotive e-MMC is realized. For example, sequential read is 2.7 times, sequential write is 1.1 times, random read is 7 times, and random write is 4.4 times faster (approximately) than Automotive e-MMC⁵.

“Our UFS for consumer applications boosts overall system performance in mobile devices, and the introduction of Automotive UFS will have a similarly positive impact on the development of in-vehicle infotainment and ADAS systems,” noted Scott Beekman, director of managed flash memory products for TMA. “As the storage requirements for automotive applications continue to accelerate, Toshiba will continue to lead the market forward by reinforcing our lineup of high-performance, high-density memory solutions targeted to the automotive sector.”

Several new functions have been added to Automotive UFS, such as Refresh, Thermal Control and Extended Diagnosis, which are well-suited to the requirements of automotive applications. The Refresh function can be used to refresh data stored in UFS and helps to extend the data’s lifespan. The Thermal Control function protects the device from overheating in high-temperature circumstances that can occur in automotive applications. Lastly, the Extended Diagnosis function helps users easily understand the device’s status.

Lineup of the New Products

Key Features

1. Extended Temperature Range
   Supports operating temperature range of -40°C to +105°C. Reliability tests were conducted to meet AEC-Q100 Grade2 specifications, in addition to JEDEC compliance tests.
2. Wide Capacity Range
   Supports wide capacity range from 16GB to 256GB. Suitable for a wide variety of automotive applications, such as entertainment & information systems and ADAS, which typically require high-capacity storage, as well as other applications (such as wireless communication) that may need only smaller capacity.
3. High Performance
   Realizes much higher performance compared to Automotive e-MMC.
4. Additional Functions
   Supports additional functions designed for automotive applications, such as Refresh, Thermal Control and Extended Diagnosis.
5. Integrated NAND Flash Memory Management
   The JEDEC UFS V2.1 compliant interface handles essential functions, including bad block management, error correction, wear levelling, and garbage collection. As a result, UFS devices simplify design when compared to standalone memory integrated circuits with a standard NAND flash interface.
    

Key Specifications
 

*About Toshiba Memory America, Inc.
Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA) is the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation, a leading worldwide supplier of flash memory and solid state drives (SSDs). From the invention of flash memory to today’s breakthrough 96-layer BiCS FLASH™ 3D technology, Toshiba continues to lead innovation and move the industry forward. For more information on TMA, please visit www.toshiba.com/TMA and follow the company on Facebook and on Twitter: @Toshiba_Memory.