New memory card format announced

Leading mobile phone manufactures and semiconductor providers has announced that they will support the creation of a new memory card format. The standard is named Universal Flash Storage (UFS) and will be finalized in 2009

Micron Technology, Inc., Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Spansion Inc., STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments announced today that they support the creation of a far-ranging industry specification for removable memory cards and embedded memory solutions.

The new specification, dubbed Universal Flash Storage (UFS), reflects the industry's need for a universal memory solution that removes the need for adaptors to accommodate different removable memory card sizes.

Major applications such as mobile handsets, digital still cameras and other CE devices will benefit from the convenience of a universal open standard based specification that is intended to reduce the time-consuming process of enabling interoperability among the various types of removable and embedded memory solutions at the system level. UFS is planned to provide consumers in the future with the convenience of a unified removable memory card that can be shared among various mobile, portable and other CE devices without the need for any adaptors.

The UFS standard is expected to be finalized in 2009.