(1) (
Universal
Flash
Storage) A high-speed serial interface between flash memory and the processor in mobile devices from the Universal Flash Storage Association. Designed for low-power mobile devices and introduced in early 2011, UFS transfers data at a minimum of 300 Mbytes/sec. Using the UniPro network stack and M-PHY layer from the MIPI Alliance, M-PHY is a Layer 1.5 protocol residing between the physical Layer 1 and the data link layer 2. See
flash memory and
OSI model.
(2) (
Unix
File
System) The traditional file system used by Unix systems. Also called "Fast File System" (FFS) and "Berkeley FFS," the major difference between UFS and the earlier "FF" versions was to break up the disk into small chunks called "cylinder groups." Each cylinder group contains its own indexes and data blocks in order to prevent excessive disk thrashing on large volumes. UFS and the ext2 file system used in Linux are very similar (see
ext2). Numerous proprietary implementations of UFS exist, and Sun added journaling to UFS in Solaris 7 (see
journaling file system). See
file system.