Samsung’s UFS 5.0 storage for on-device AI earns a CES 2027 award

Samsung Electronics put its UFS 5.0 embedded storage on the list of CES 2027 Innovation Award winners it disclosed on November 15. The chip, designed for on-device AI in phones and other mobile hardware, was an honoree in the Mobile Devices, Accessories & Apps category. The Consumer Technology Association had announced the award lineup on November 9. Samsung says it will show its winning products at CES in January.

Samsung’s disclosure lists the storage in 512 GB and 1 TB capacities. For device makers building AI into phones or wearables, a faster drive can shorten the time it takes to get model files off storage and ready to use on the device. Buyers will need product-specific information to know where that change will show up. Samsung’s November announcement did not name a phone or other device that will ship with the chip.

When faster storage matters

UFS holds files such as photos, apps and model weights while a device is switched off. When an app starts a model, the device reads the required data from storage. Working memory holds the data the processor needs during computation. A model already loaded into working memory can avoid the initial transfer, so opening an app for the first time and returning to a running session may involve different waits.

Samsung introduced the component in June and quoted maximum sequential speeds of 10.8 GB per second for reads and 9.5 GB per second for writes. In the company’s comparison, each exceeded twice the corresponding speed of UFS 4.1. Sequential throughput measures transfers where large blocks of data are read or written in order. The time until an AI app responds also includes preparing the model and processing the user’s input.

Reading many smaller blocks scattered across a drive is a separate measurement. Samsung Semiconductor’s product page puts random-read performance at about 3.4 times that of UFS 4.1. Samsung’s awards announcement attributes the improvement across a large storage area to its own software. The product page describes the figures as internal assessments and says they can vary with the system and its environment.

Samsung also claims a 40% improvement in the storage component’s power efficiency compared with UFS 4.1. A phone’s battery life also depends on the screen, processor, wireless radios and the amount of time each component is active. The November announcement did not include a battery-life or AI-response comparison between finished devices.

Samsung said in June that the package measures 7.5 by 13 millimeters and is 0.9 millimeters thick. It describes the package as 16.7% smaller than its predecessor. That gives device engineers more room to arrange parts such as the battery. The layout of a finished handset or wearable determines how that space gets used.

Two server modules also received awards

Two other Samsung semiconductor honorees, LPDDR5X SOCAMM2 and a 512 GB DDR5 RDIMM, serve as working memory in AI servers. SOCAMM2 is a detachable module that sits low on a server board. Samsung Semiconductor says that setup lets an operator replace the module or add capacity while keeping the board.

The DDR5 module addresses server capacity. Samsung says its use of 32-gigabit DRAM chips lets it build the 512 GB module with four stacked layers, down from eight in its previous 16-gigabit design. It gives an upper limit of 8 TB for a 16-channel server using one module per channel. The 512 GB figure on the DDR5 module describes space for data during computation. The same capacity on the UFS part describes space for files kept on the device.

When Samsung introduced UFS 5.0 in June, it planned to begin mass production in the fourth quarter of 2026. Its November awards announcement gave no update on whether those production lines had started or who would receive the chips. The company plans to exhibit its award winners at CES 2027, which runs January 6 to 9 in Las Vegas.