Ruggedized storage is engineered for data-intensive automotive systems

Micron announced that it is sampling 128GB and 256GB densities of its 96-layer NAND as part of its new portfolio of UFS 3.1 managed NAND products for automotive applications. With infotainment systems evolving to include high-resolution displays and human-machine interface capabilities based on artificial intelligence (AI), Micron’s UFS 3.1 portfolio provides much-needed high-throughput and low-latency storage.

Micron UFS 3.1 offers two times faster read performance than UFS 2.1, enabling fast boot times and minimizing latency for data-intensive in-vehicle infotainment and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). UFS 3.1 also provides 50% faster sustained write performance to keep pace with real-time local storage needs of growing sensor and camera data for Level 3+ ADAS systems and black box applications.

Market research and strategy consulting firm Yole Développement (Yole) projects the market for NAND in automotive to grow to $3.6 billion in 2025, nearly quadrupling from $0.9 billion in 2020. As vehicles become more software-centric, these new centers of data require high-performance storage to make large volumes of information readily available for near-instant processing. ADAS-enabled vehicles now contain over 100 million lines of code that must be stored and quickly read for snappier user experiences and quick decision-making at the edge.

“The new engine of the modern car utilizes centralized, high-performance compute to drive data-rich AI, computer vision and multi-sensor processing capabilities, resulting in a need for advanced storage and memory solutions,” said Vasanth Waran, senior director of product management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Micron’s UFS 3.1 portfolio is uniquely engineered and designed to meet the rigorous reliability and performance requirements of automotive environments, which equips OEMs to raise the bar for personalized, adaptive and context-aware digital cockpits. We look forward to working with Micron Technology to optimize its leading storage and memory solutions for use across our automotive platforms.”