Western Digital Unveils iNAND MC EU321: a UFS 2.1 Drive Based on 96L 3D NAND
by Anton Shilov on October 12, 2018 9:00 AM EST
Western Digital has announced its new lineup of UFS 2.1-based embedded storage devices for smartphones, tablets, PCs, and other mobile applications. The new iNAND MC EU321 drives are based on the company’s 96-layer 3D NAND memory and offer performance comparable to that of entry-level SSDs.
Western Digital’s iNAND MC EU321 embedded flash drives feature capacities between 32 GB and 256 GB, and are based around an in-house controller that supports a UFS 2.1 Gear3 2-lane interface. When it comes to performance, the EFDs are rated for up to 800 MB/s sequential read speed, up to 550 MB/s sequential write speed, and up to 50/52K random read/write IOPS, with these figures presumably including the impact of WD's proprietary iNAND SmartSLC 5.1 caching technology.
The iNAND MC EU321 comes in a BGA package that measures by 11.5×13×1 mm, which is small enough for modern smartphones and tablets. Meanwhile, given capacities offered by the new flash drives, they can also be used for laptops, VR headsets, and other kinds of devices that can take advantage of high-performance storage.
The new family of iNAND MC E321 embedded flash drives will complement other 3D NAND-based UFS 2.1 offerings from Western Digital and will enable the manufacturer to make such solutions slightly cheaper. Traditionally, memory suppliers do not disclose which specific customers will will use their EFDs, but we should see the first products using the drives shortly.
Western Digital has been shipping commercial products based on 96-layer 3D NAND since at least April. The company introduced its first SSD based on this type of memory in July, so the ultra-dense flash from Western Digital is ready for all types of applications.
Related Reading:
- Western Digital Begins to Sample QLC BiCS4: 1.33 Tbit 96-Layer 3D NAND
- Western Digital Announce BiCS4 3D NAND: 96 Layers, TLC & QLC, Up to 1 Tb per Chip
- Western Digital Announces Four Bit Per Cell 64-Layer 3D NAND Flash
- Toshiba's 768Gb 3D QLC NAND Flash Memory: Matching TLC at 1000 P/E Cycles?
- Intel And Micron Launch First QLC NAND: Micron 5210 ION Enterprise SATA SSD
Source: Western Digital
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
5 Comments
View All Comments
deil - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
perfect. now if ANY company would be so kind to share what storge they haveDragonstongue - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
800/550 read/writ but "only" 50/25k random read/write seems quirky as heck and no mention of TBW data is not so good.but the R/W speeds if they could/will package this in a fashion for SATA based SSD or M.2 "budget" with those speeds at a reasonable price would be nice...hopefully they have sorted out their many "teething" issues as many of the blue or black SSD coming from WD are nowhere near the real world calibre expected (given the price) compared to equally large companies who seem to have nowhere near the same "issues"
sid1712 - Friday, October 12, 2018 - link
"Western Digital has announced its new lineup of UFS 2.1-based embedded storage devices for smartphones, tablets, PCs, and other mobile applications"For phones and tablets, this should be more than enough. I don't really think UFS storage is used in PC/laptops
Samus - Sunday, October 14, 2018 - link
keep in mind iops are low on emmc and inand because they generally have controllers with 1-2 channelsPeachNCream - Monday, October 15, 2018 - link
There are a fair number of ultra low-budget laptops and Chromebooks that use eMMC even slower than something like this. I wouldn't be surprised to see 32GB flavors soldered to < $250 laptop mainboards.