The MIPI Alliance announced a significant update to its versatile, application-agnostic MIPI UniPro transport layer for chip-to-chip/interprocessor communication (IPC) applications in traditional and modular device architectures. Version 2.0 of the specification adds key features to double the data rate while offering greater throughput and reduced latency particularly required by today’s most demanding flash storage applications.

First introduced in 2007, MIPI UniPro has been incorporated into multiple versions of the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association’s Universal Flash Storage (UFS) standard as its transport and link layers, along with MIPI M-PHY serving as its physical layer, to connect memory components. Such components can be deployed in a variety of products, including smartphones, drones, action cameras, consumer devices, tablets, and mobile computing products, as well as infotainment platforms and telematics hubs in automotive systems. JEDEC’s forthcoming UFS 4.0 standard will take advantage of the enhancements in UniPro v2.0, as well as those in M-PHY v5.0, which was released in late 2021. Both MIPI specifications were developed in collaboration with JEDEC UFS developers.

UniPro v2.0 adds new capabilities for high-speed serial line communication and support for simultaneous, high-bandwidth transactions. Added features in v2.0 include: Support for the MIPI M-PHY v5.0 “High-Speed Gear 5” (HS-G5) – The UniPro protocol is deployed on MIPI M-PHY at the physical layer to optimize throughput, system performance, and service quality. UniPro v2.0 uses M-PHY HS-G5 to increase bandwidth to 23.32 Gigabits per second (Gbps) per lane and per direction—twice that of the previous UniPro v1.8 specification—to satisfy the memory storage ecosystem’s growing data rate requirements; Increased payload length – Boosting the UniPro L2 layer packet payload length from 272 to 1144 ensures decreased protocol overhead with increased link speed, resulting in improved throughput for storage applications; High-speed linkup – Latency in completing a link (or “stack boot”) in storage applications is decreased by up to about 8 milliseconds in v2.0;

In addition, UniPro v2.0 simplifies integration for application designers by removing features such as lower speeds that largely have fallen out of use in the UFS industry. With the elimination of those features, UniPro v2.0 is compatible with the previous version, v1.8. The specification’s conformance test suite (CTS) is also being updated to account for the new features in v2.0.