The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge were the first devices to to the market with next-generation UFS 2.0 based storage chips. These new UFS 2.0 based chips are up to 3x times faster than the eMMC 5.0 or eMMC 5.1 chips used by other OEMs in their handsets and make a huge difference in performance in read/write intensive tasks. Up until now, Samsung has been the only company that is producing UFS 2.0 based NANDs, and it has kept the chip exclusive for its mobile devices. That is going to change soon though, as SK Hynix — South Korea’s largest chip maker — has started the production of UFS 2.0 based storage chips. The company is also in talks with smartphone makers from around the world to supply them with 64GB UFS 2.0 chips. The company also mentions that its UFS 2.0 chips are capable of performing 32,000 I/O operations per second, and are up to 3x times faster than existing eMMC chips. UFS 2.0 based memory chips are expected to make their way to more high-end smartphones that are scheduled for launch in the second half of this year.
