ufs
Latest
Huawei blames slower P10s on memory shortage
Memory speed isn't always something that one would pay attention to when buying a smartphone, or at least you'd expect the latest flagships to come with the fastest options available at the time, but it turns out that this isn't necessarily true. Recently, some Huawei P10 and P10 Plus users in China noticed that they were only getting eMMC 5.1 memory speeds on their devices. For instance, the sequential read speeds were in the ballpark of 250MB/s on AndroBench, whereas the luckier folks who got UFS 2.0 or 2.1 chips on their phones managed to hit around 550MB/s or even 750MB/s (our very own international unit got 786.67MB/s). Indeed, Huawei never specified the type of flash memory on its P10 spec sheets, which led to speculations that the mobile giant was intentionally misleading consumers.
Samsung's world-first UFS memory cards are blazing fast
We've heard arguments for and against removable storage on smartphones, but we can all agree on the fact that the more the merrier. And we're not just talking about memory space here, as the speed becomes more crucial when it comes to capturing higher video resolutions on our smartphones and drones. To satisfy our need for speed, Samsung is the first to announce a series of UFS (Universal Flash Storage) removable memory cards, with its 256GB flavor boasting an SSD-like sequential read speed of 530MB/s -- that's about half a gigabyte per second and almost five times faster than the top microSD cards these days. It can also do 170MB/s sequential writing, which is almost two to three times faster.
Samsung is building 256GB memory chips for smartphones
Your smartphone may soon have as much storage as a typical PC. Samsung has announced that it's mass producing 256GB embedded chips, double what it had last year, using the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard. That gives them read speeds nearly twice that of typical SATA-based SSDs at 850MB/s, though write speeds are lower at 250MB/s. It also supports 45,000 IOPS, more than double the speed of last-gen UFS memory. Samsung's memory division VP says the company is "moving aggressively to enhance performance and capacity" of smartphone memory and SSD products, too.
Samsung wants to put 128GB of fast storage in your next phone
It's no longer hard to get a hefty 128GB of storage in a smartphone, but that doesn't mean you'll enjoy it. What's the point of all that extra space if your phone chugs handling huge games and 4K videos? Samsung has clearly anticipated this problem, though -- it just outed the first 128GB flash memory chip based on the speedy Universal Flash Storage standard. The part uses tricks like command queuing and a serial interface to give you the kind of breakneck performance you'd expect from a solid-state drive in a PC, not a device that fits in your pocket. It's about 2.7 times faster at random data reads than the flash you see in many high-end phones, while its sequential speeds are "up to SSD levels." And that's while using 50 percent less power -- you won't have to take a hit to battery life.
Off the Grid reviews Universal Fighting System
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column about card games, board games, and everything else non-digital.Chun Li versus Seung Mina; Nightmare versus Morrigan; Akuma versus Tycho Brahe: Ultimate showdowns we're likely never to see outside of crudely-written fan-fiction and our own fevered dreamings. Luckily for us, Sabertooth Games has devised the Universal Fighting System, a collectible card game that allows players to mix and match licensed decks to create legendary one-on-one battles.There's one problem, or maybe I should call it a caveat: UFS isn't going to be for everybody. Beyond the gorgeous illustrations, and clear appeal to video game fans, this is most definitely a gamer's game; cards are littered with special icons, point values, and ancillary functions that dwarf the relative simplicity of CCGs like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon. Of course, the reward for this technical complexity is depth, with an incredibly strategic experience waiting to be unlocked by the hardiest of players. Not to deter you, but let this be a warning: A casual card game this is not.
PAX 07: The licensed games panel
There's nothing more indicative of gamer culture than the fact that a bunch of us got together at a fan event, with games to be played right over in the exhibition hall, to talk about business. We can't help it! We love sales numbers and such.Vlad Ceraldi and Steve Bocska from Hothead, Steve Bowler from Midway, and David Freeman from Sabertooth Games held a panel to talk about licensed games yesterday at PAX. All of these individuals have unique qualifications to talk about the subject: the two Hothead representatives, in addition to working on Penny Arcade Adventures now, previously worked on last generation's Simpsons games. Bowler worked on NBA Ballers and is now on John Woo Presents Stranglehold, and Freeman juggles licenses in his work with Sabertooth's Universal Fighting System card game.
