Western Digital’s new mobile storage is ready for the 5G era

Downloading things superfast is only half the battle.

Just in case you hadn't noticed, 5G is the big buzz at Mobile World Congress this year. But being able to download data to your phone, tablet or laptop with lightning speed is only half the battle. Enter Western Digital with its new embedded flash storage for the new era of 5G devices.

The iNAND MC EU511 (don't get hung up on the name) is built on Western Digital's 96-layer 3D NAND, and boasts a turbo sequential write speed of up to 750MB/s as well a 2x increase in read speeds on its predecessor. Random read and write performance is also given a boost, and it will be available in capacities from 54GB to 512GB.

The new storage is powered by a UFS 3.0 flash interface, and promises the necessary performance for the next generation of mobile connected devices.

"Smartphones are increasingly becoming the hub of all things connected," said Oded Sagee, senior director, Devices, Western Digital. "High speed 5G networks are set to deliver data at up to 100X the speed of previous generations and amplify AI on many devices. Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered by integrated neural processing units (NPU) with access to big and fast data will transform how we use our smartphones. Real-time computing on the edge will be in such high demand that high standards of data capturing and accessing are fundamental. With our UFS 3.0 embedded flash drive, we are enabling users to experience the new power of 5G applications, on-demand, seamlessly and instantaneously."

There's no word yet on any manufacturers or devices that will be using WD's new storage, but we're certainly pleased to see a commitment to better performing mobile storage options.