At last week’s Xiaomi Pascal OS and Xiaomi Mi 14 series new product launch conference, Lei Jun announced the launch of an “UltraSpace storage expansion” function. For the 256GB Mi 14 Pro, users get an additional 8GB of space, while for the 512GB Mi 14 and Mi 14 Pro, users get an additional 16GB of space.
Today, Zhang Guoquan, director of Xiaomi’s phone system software department, explained this feature and said that the “UltraSpace storage expansion” function will not pose a lifespan risk to UFS at all, and older models do not support upgrades.
In addition, Xiaomi has contributed the standard to the UFS Association. In order to respect the originality, Xiaomi requires chip manufacturers to provide a time protection period. In the near future, all major phone manufacturers should adapt to this function.
The complete content is as follows:
Regarding the storage expansion function mentioned at the Xiaomi Mi 14 press conference, after reading everyone’s feedback these days, I feel it is still necessary to explain the ins and outs of this function. The text is very long. Students who are not interested in technology can just read the question and the first paragraph. answer
Why do we need this function?
I am ashamed to say that in the past few years, MIUI has been criticized for being "bloated". In the past two years, it has been vigorously rectifying it. From last year's Razor Plan to this year's storage expansion, it is the same line. We must say goodbye to bloat.
Project Razor 1.0 aims to ensure that except for a few basic functions, other system applications can be uninstalled. Project Razor 2.0 aims to achieve the smallest system firmware, plus storage expansion, to ensure that users can use the maximum space.
The ultra-simplified Xiaomi ThePaper OS is not only extremely fast and light, but also saves a lot of space. With the hardware expansion of 8GB, you can gain up to nearly 20GB of additional space compared to other flagships. In addition, the file deduplication and dynamic compression functions in the OS also improve storage efficiency. It is not only larger, but also more "durable". Taken together, after long-term use, it can store more than 30 or even 40G of data.
What is the technical principle? Are there lifespan risks to UFS?
Absolutely not, everyone can use it with confidence, trust the professionalism of Xiaomi and chip manufacturers, and don’t be led away.
Let’s briefly introduce bad block replacement management. Since storage devices generally can only replace them with units with reserved space after bad blocks are found, once there is not enough reserved space, the memory chip will be completely unusable. In addition to reserving sufficient space based on user habits, we also optimize Cache management to reduce erasure and bad block generation. We also support cloud control to adjust the bad block reserve area according to user conditions after long-term use, ensuring System stability. According to the current model of heavy users, under the condition of writing 40GB of data every day, the 256GB expansion chip can still guarantee more than 10 years, and the 512GB can last more than 20 years. Please rest assured.
To ensure the best storage experience, it is necessary to achieve in-depth collaboration between the host file system and UFS. This has been reflected in the previous FBO refresh storage function. With the same concept, Xiaomi has also deeply intervened in UFS resource management based on file management on the host side. , realize "data is not written unless necessary (UFS)" through software, and "write data is not migrated unless necessary" is realized through software + firmware, which not only reduces the amount of writing, but also achieves better wear-leveling and WAF
Can older models be upgraded to support it?
It requires phone manufacturers and supply chain manufacturers to cooperate, and calibration needs to be done during phone production, so older models do not support it.
The same Xiaomi 14, why are some versions not supported?
For the sake of supply chain security, we purchased a number of memory chips. Although Xiaomi shared all the technology with suppliers, some manufacturers had not had time to adapt. In fact, there were objections a few days before the launch. Finally, Mr. Lei made the final decision: OK Don't waste technology. Just explain it clearly to everyone. If you have more 8G/16G, just enjoy the happiness brought by technology. It's normal if you don't have it. I hope everyone understands.
Driven by Xiaomi, mainstream memory chip manufacturers at home and abroad will gradually adapt.
Can other manufacturers use this technology?
Xiaomi has contributed the standard to the UFS Association. In order to respect the originality, we require the chip manufacturers to provide a time protection period. In the near future, all major phone manufacturers should adapt to this function. Since its establishment, Xiaomi has always hoped to work with all manufacturers to promote industry progress. This does not need to be explained, everyone should see it.According to Lei Jun’s previous introduction, the actual real space of a phone storage with a nominal 256GB actually exceeds 275GB. Among them, 93.1% of the space is actually usable by users, and the remaining 6.9% is called Over Provision, or OP for short, which is the space occupied by the internal management of the memory. This part of the space cannot be used during the use of the phone.
Xiaomi has worked closely with memory manufacturers. First, Xiaomi has modified its space management strategy to compress the space occupied by the OP area from 6.9% to about 3%. This process requires an in-depth understanding of the working principle of the memory to ensure that the performance and life of the memory will not be affected while compressing the OP area space. After many tests and optimizations, Xiaomi found an ideal balance point.
Xiaomi then added a new logical address mapping range to the ThePaper OS file system, allowing it to manage this part of the “new space”. During this process, Xiaomi needs to deeply customize the file system to ensure that it can manage this new space correctly and efficiently. Xiaomi engineers finally achieved this goal after countless experiments and tuning.
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