KIOXIA EDSFF E1.S SSDs Now Available for Hyperscale Data Centers

XD6 Series Data Center Class SSDs Address Performance, Power and Thermal Requirements of Hyperscale Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif., November 8, 2021 – Delivering on the promise of SSDs that address future enterprise infrastructure requirements,  KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced production-ready availability of its 9.5mm XD6 Series Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E1.S data center class SSDs. Introduced in late 2020, KIOXIA XD6 drives were the first[1] EDSFF E1.S SSDs to address the specific requirements of hyperscale applications, including the performance, power and thermal requirements of the Open Compute Platform (OCP) NVMe® Cloud SSD Specification. XD6 series also supports popular E1.S 15mm and 25mm form factor options, providing the flexibility to select the right balance of cooling through different E1.S heatsink options.

Representing the latest innovation in flash storage for servers in cloud and hyperscale data centers, KIOXIA EDSFF E1.S SSDs are designed to optimize system density, efficiency and management. As defined by the EDSFF consortium and leveraging the OCP NVMe Cloud SSD Specification, the small form factor E1.S replaces the M.2 form factor and delivers greater density, performance, reliability, and thermal management. E1.S is also designed to be hot pluggable for increased serviceability, which is another benefit over M.2.

Utilizing KIOXIA BiCS FLASH™ 3D flash memory, the read-intensive XD6 Series features[1] DWPD[2] endurance, is compliant to NVMe 1.3c and PCIe® 4.0 specifications, and is available in capacities[3] of 1.92TB and 3.84TB. An option for TCG-Opal 2.0 encryption is included as well.

EDSFF E1.S is targeted at large-scale deployments in hyperscale data centers, due to its ability to scale in terms of capacity, power, performance and thermals.  Drives designed to the OCP NVMe Cloud SSD specification can be used in the new OCP Yosemite V3 platform developed by Facebook.

“Microsoft and the OCP Storage workgroup demonstrated how an open collaboration across the industry could align hyperscalers, system designers and SSD vendors around next-generation storage form factors,” said Jason Adrian, senior director of Azure Platform Architecture, Microsoft. “The EDSFF E1.S form factor is the future of flash storage in hyperscale data centers, including Azure platforms. Solid state disks designed to the OCP NVMe Cloud SSD specification, such as the KIOXIA XD6 Series, will power the next generation of EDSFF E1.S-based servers.”

“Advancements in hyperscale data centers require flash deployments to be more efficient and optimized,” said Maulik Sompura, director of product management, KIOXIA America, Inc. “New specifications and form factors, such as EDSFF, have emerged and are poised to deliver substantial advantages over current form factors in terms of required capabilities. By delivering higher IOPs per terabyte, higher IOPs per watt, higher density per square inch -especially for 1U servers- and significantly better thermals, XD6 SSDs dramatically improve the total cost of ownership for our customers.”

KIOXIA is an active and contributing member to the industry development of EDSFF E1 and E3 solutions and is collaborating with leading server and storage system developers to unlock the full power of flash memory, NVMe and PCIe technologies.

For more information, please visit americas.kioxia.com.

About KIOXIA America, Inc.
KIOXIA America, Inc. is the U.S.-based subsidiary of KIOXIA Corporation, a leading worldwide supplier of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). From the invention of flash memory to today’s breakthrough BiCS FLASH™ 3D technology, KIOXIA continues to pioneer innovative memory, SSD and software solutions that enrich people's lives and expand society's horizons. The company's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, SSDs, automotive, and data centers. For more information, please visit americas.kioxia.com.

Notes:

[1] Based on a survey of publicly available information as of November 3, 2020.

[2] DWPD: Drive Write(s) Per Day. One full drive write per day means the drive can be written and re-written to full capacity once a day every day for five years, the stated product warranty period. Actual results may vary due to system configuration, usage and other factors.

[3] Definition of capacity: KIOXIA Corporation defines a megabyte (MB) as 1,000,000 bytes, a gigabyte (GB) as 1,000,000,000 bytes and a terabyte (TB) as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. A computer operating system, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1Gb = 2^30 bits = 1,073,741,824 bits, 1GB = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes and 1TB = 2^40 bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity (including examples of various media files) will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software and operating system, and/or pre-installed software applications, or media content. Actual formatted capacity may vary.

PCI Express and PCIe are registered trademarks of PCI-SIG.

NVM Express and NVMe are registered trademarks of NVM Express, Inc.

All other company names, product names and service names may be trademarks of their respective companies.

  • Information in this press release, including product pricing and specifications, content of services, and contact information is current and believed to be accurate on the date of the announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice. Technical and application information contained here is subject to the most recent applicable KIOXIA product specifications.