GENEVA: Micron Technology, Inc., Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Spansion Inc., STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments announced that they support the creation of a far -ranging industry specification for removable memory cards and embedded memory solutions being standardized by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association (JEDEC), a leading open-standards organization in the semiconductor industry.

The new specification, dubbed Universal Flash Storage (UFS),is expected to be finalized in 2009.It reflects the industry's need for a universal memory solution. Widespread demand for higher densities and higher performance, plus the surging popularity of multimedia content, is accelerating the need for advanced memory solutions in removable card or embedded formats.

UFS will provide a revolutionary leap towards supporting very low access times required for memories, as well as enabling high-speed access to large multimedia files, while reducing power-consumption in consumer electronic (CE) devices. The target performance level is expected to be a significant advancement beyond that of the varied flash cards popular today. Today, users experience a three-minute access time for a 90-minute (4 Gigabyte) high-definition movie; with the new standard, this would be reduced to a few seconds.

"Universal standards hold a pivotal role in the development of more cost-efficient and better designed products. Standardization of flash-based technologies will be crucial in determining how fast storage devices will be able to fully support industry demand for higher densities and faster transmission speeds," said Frankie Roohparver, vice president of NAND development for Micron Technology.

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.

Nokia will also actively participate in the development of the UFS specification, which aims to provide future mobile devices with high performance and flexibility. "This collaborative UFS effort will provide the industry with an open standard mass memory solution with optimal performance and interoperability," said Seppo Lamberg, senior vice president, Technology Platforms, Nokia

"The proposed UFS specification is good news for card manufacturers and set designers alike. The proliferating use of flash memory as a storage medium underscores the importance of introducing a universal connectivity solution for memory cards, where high performance and reliability are critical," said Jon Kang, President, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

"It not only provides significantly higher bandwidth, but also supports low latency accesses and is positioned to provide an essential infrastructure in future mobile devices," said George Minassian, vice president of Strategic Planning and Systems Engineering, Wireless Solutions Division at Spansion

"We think that this Universal Standard will cover the needs of the embedded and removable markets for many years," said Giuseppe Crisenza NAND Flash group general manager, STMicroelectronics.