Stefan Mileschin

Less than a month after JEDEC published its UFS 3.1 specification, Kioxia and Western Digital have introduced their first UFS 3.1-compliant storage devices for smartphones. Samples of Kioxia’s UFS 3.1 drives will be available to manufacturers shortly, while Western Digital is on track to ship UFS 3.1 devices commercially next month, just in time for the launch of mainstream 5G smartphones.
Western Digital’s iNAND EU521: 128 GB and 256 GB Available in March, 512 GB Hinted

Western Digital’s iNAND EU521 embedded drives will initially offer 128 GB and 256 configurations in an industry-standard 11.5×13×1.0 mm package. The storage device is based on the company’s proprietary controller with two NAND channels as well as two HS-G4 lanes at an 11.6 Gbps data rate, which is coupled with 96-layer 3D TLC NAND memory. Due to a relatively low internal parallelism, the iNAND EU521 is rated for up to 800 MB/s read/write speeds, up from 750 MB/s in case of the iNAND 511 launched last year.

The iNAND EU521 supports three key UFS 3.1 improvements: Write Booster pseudo-SLC caching to improve write performance, Deep Sleep mode, and Performance Throttling Notification. Western Digital stresses that the Write Booster capability has been implemented via a firmware update to the company’s SmartSLC Gen 6 technology that has been used on iNAND devices for years, and which has been refined in multiple ways. Speaking of features, it's worth noting that the drive does not support any kind of Host Performance Booster tech, as it is not really needed for 128 GB and 256 GB drives.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15562...estern-digital