Samsung begins mass production of 512GB embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) 3.0 chips for smartphones, with speeds of up to 2,100 MB/s
Mariella Moon / Engadget :
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the next rung on a ladder Samsung has been climbing since it introduced a 128GB 3-bit NAND chip for mid-range phones in 2015 and moved to 256GB chips on the faster UFS 2.0 interface in 2016 — a steady doubling of embedded capacity roughly every couple of years. The 512GB eUFS 3.0 part pushes read speeds to 2,100 MB/s, and Samsung followed it within weeks by starting production of 10nm 12GB LPDDR4X DRAM targeting 34.1 GBps, showing memory and storage ramping together.
The strategic backdrop is Samsung's long-running attempt to make removable cards obsolete: its removable UFS memory cards announced in 2016 were pitched as a faster successor to microSD but lacked device support, so embedding ever-larger fast storage directly is how the slot gets engineered out.
First-order effects
- Flagship phone makers can now ship 512GB devices with no microSD slot and no speed penalty, since embedded flash at 2,100 MB/s outruns any removable card — buyers get the capacity, Samsung gets the component revenue that would have gone to card vendors.
Second-order effects
- Rival NAND suppliers are forced to match both the density and the UFS 3.0 interface or cede the premium tier, while microSD card makers face shrinking demand as high-capacity embedded storage removes the main reason for the slot.
Third-order effects
- If the doubling cadence holds, embedded storage keeps absorbing functions once handled by removable media and external drives — a trajectory Samsung itself confirmed when it unveiled UFS 4.0 with double the speed of UFS 3.1, aimed at 5G phones three years later.
The trend: Smartphone storage is consolidating around high-density embedded UFS that Samsung produces first and fastest, steadily displacing removable media.