Taiwan-based Phison Electronics has announced it will start shipping solutions for UFS 2.1 NAND flash storage devices in the first quarter of 2017.

Phison has rolled out its first Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.1 controller chip, the PS8311, to support 3D TLC NAND flash memory. The PS8311 chip has been qualified with major UFS mobile chipsets and is scheduled for volume production in the first quarter of 2017, according to the flash device controller maker.

The latest UFS 2.1 specification is equipped with much higher data rates and a differential-signaling serial interface compared to eMMC 5.1 which is capped at 400MB/s interface, Phison indicated. UFS 2.1 also allows for full-duplex operation and command queuing. PS8311 is the first in a series of Phison's UFS controllers, enabling 1-lane throughput that is 30% faster than eMMC in sequential reads. Additionally, PS8311's 28,500 random read and 26,500 random write IOPS performances are phenomenally 2 to 3 times higher than the fastest eMMC solutions today, the company claimed.

Using advanced packaging techniques, PS8311 can be easily adopted into several form factors such as the UFS Card, discrete BGA, or UFS-based multichip packages with low-power DRAM (uMCPs) for various mobile applications, Phison said.

Targeted for higher densities, PS8311 can support a maximum of eight NAND dice enabling UFS solutions with capacities ranging from 16GB to 256GB based on 2D and 3D TLC. Additionally, Phison is developing a new 2-lane solution targeting 512GB and 1TB capacities by the end of 2017, the company said.

Phison added the company will have a complete series of UFS solutions in 2017 to support different specs of chips for smartphones and other mobile devices.

"Phison is already a top controller supplier for eMMC and eMCP, the main storage component in mobile handsets," said Phison CEO and co-founder KS Pua. "As the UFS standard is taking off in the high-end segment, we have put in our best engineering efforts to develop a cost-effective, high performance controller in parallel with Phison's latest PCIe SSD architecture, grasping the high density 3D TLC trend that is quickly becoming the mainstream NAND output."