UFS is gaining momentum with more phones such as Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G5, and potentially more phones are coming to the market in 2nd half of 2016 with UFS memory on board. The performance improvements from the mainstream, mature eMMC allows SoCs targeting high end phones a way to differentiate and provide a much better user experience.

Posted in Application processor, M-PHY, MIPI alliance, Smartphone, SoC, Storage, Tablet, UFS, Unipro

A Processor with Vision

I just came back from the MIPI alliance face-to-face meeting last week that was engaging and interesting.

Posted in Application processor, Baseband processor, Camera, CSI, D-PHY, Display, DSI, Image signal processor, MIPI alliance, Smartphone, SoC, Storage, Tablet, UFS, Unipro

Versatile Physical Layer servicing Camera and Display Interfaces

In the last post I asked what is MIPI Alliance’s most popular specification in terms of adoption as of today.

Posted in Application processor, Baseband processor, Camera, CSI, D-PHY, DigRF, Display, DSI, Image signal processor, LLI, M-PHY, MIPI alliance, Mobile PCIe, RFFE, RFIC, SLIMbus, Smartphone, SoC, SSIC, Storage, Tablet, UFS, Unipro

UFS in Volume Production

JEDEC UFS is an Accredited Standard, developed and adopted through an open consensus process, under the guidelines of JEDEC. The power of having a standard is that the industry has recognized a useful way to implement things both technically and economically, and through the procedure governed by the standard body (JEDEC for example) enable vendors to develop standard-compliant products and encourage a robust, interoperable eco-system. Standards reduce time to market benefiting the industry and end consumers as technical needs are met and cost goes down with increased maturity.

Posted in Application processor, M-PHY, MIPI alliance, Smartphone, SoC, Storage, Tablet, UFS, Unipro

Learn from MIPI and Mobile Storage Experts

We live in a challenging era where a lot of information is presented to us and it is hard distill what’s important and where to invest our time.

Posted in Application processor, Camera, CSI, D-PHY, Display, DSI, Image signal processor, M-PHY, MIPI alliance, Smartphone, SoC, Storage, Tablet, UFS, Unipro

Choosing the Right interface for your SoC

I am often asked when meeting with customers about latest trends and what would be the right interface for the customer next design. The answer of course depends on which market you go after, your cost targets and more, however being aware of the latest trends help in the decision.

Posted in Application processor, D-PHY, Display, DSI, MIPI alliance, Smartphone, SoC, Storage, UFS, Unipro

UFS and CSI-2 Accelerated Design

With the rumors about UFS going mainstream with first introduction in Samsung Galaxy S6 phone expected next year (2015), I wanted to raise what I see as a repeat concern when discussing adoption of new standard (such as UFS). A key challenge in today’s mobile IC and electronics design is the ability to meet time to market window, get your system up and running with new standards and interoperate with other devices. This is particularly true for JEDEC UFS v2.0 which is fairly new standard that the indusrty is gearing up to mass production of the first UFS devices and Application Processors targeted to be available in the hands of customers in 2015.

Posted in Application processor, Camera, CSI, D-PHY, Display, DSI, Image signal processor, M-PHY, MIPI alliance, Smartphone, SoC, Storage, Tablet, UFS, Unipro

Demand your M-PHY

MIPI Alliance’s M-PHY specification v3.0 provides a solid specification targeted to a variety of applications in the mobile electronics space. I hear some concerns about that this technology is new and engineers prefer to wait for the adoption to pick up before they use it.

Posted in Application processor, Baseband processor, Camera, DigRF, Display, DSI, LLI, M-PHY, MIPI alliance, Mobile PCIe, Smartphone, SoC, SSIC, Storage, Tablet, UFS, Unipro

Demonstrating M-PHY v3.0 Silicon

MIPI M-PHY is a promising technology, intended to be used across multiple applications and utilized by standard organizations such as JEDEC for UFS, USB for SSIC, and PCI-SIG for Mobile PCIe. We have been working in the past several months to develop and prove M-PHY in HS-Gear3 operation as the specification evolves in the MIPI PHY Work group. Our deep involvement in the group allowed us to develop the M-PHY which is fully compliant to the latest M-PHY v3.0 specification. In March 2013 during the MIPI Face-to-face meeting we demonstrated M-PHY operation in HS-Gear3 and showed it to everyone on the floor. I received a lot of requests to share the video of this demo and now it is ready.

Posted in Application processor, Baseband processor, CSI, DigRF, LLI, M-PHY, MIPI alliance, Mobile PCIe, Smartphone, SoC, SSIC, Storage, Tablet, UFS, Unipro