Kioxia's upgraded GP SSD tops 20M IOPS in push to challenge DRAM in AI

The upgraded drive relies on third-generation XL-FLASH memory, which Kioxia says delivers three times the reading speed and about 150% higher writing speed than before. The company's broader plan is to offer flash storage that approaches memory-class speed for AI infrastructure, where faster storage is being positioned as a way to meet new performance demands.

"Kioxia is making game-changing high-performance flash storage solutions for AI infrastructure," said Neville Ichhaporia, senior vice president and general manager of the SD business unit at Kioxia America. "As AI drives new performance demands, scalable, efficient storage becomes the foundation for innovation."

Kioxia's XL-FLASH technology is designed to provide higher operation rates, finer 512-byte access and lower power per operation than conventional SSDs. The third-generation version shortens word and bit wiring to reduce RC delay and fits more planes in each die than the 16 planes of the second generation. Efficiency is forecast to rise roughly 40% for reads and 80% for writes, though the energy used by each operation is expected to keep climbing, according to the report.

The first-generation GP1 uses MLC cells storing 2 bits, a faster SLC mode, a 16-plane layout and read latency below 5 microseconds. It is a PCIe 6.0 NVMe 2.2 drive intended for GPUs to reach storage directly, with endurance rated at up to 50 DWPD. Kioxia has not disclosed the upgraded model's endurance rating or confirmed whether it keeps the PCIe 6.0 interface, but TechRadar reported that it will most likely follow the path of its predecessor.

Kioxia also exhibited the LD4, a QLC drive with one port that stores 4 bits per cell in the E1.L format using a four-lane PCIe 5 link. It comes in 15.36 TB and 30.72 TB capacities, while its design can scale to 122.88 TB for hyperscalers. That is still modest compared with the Kioxia LC9's 246 TB capacity. The 15.36 TB model fills a quarter of the E1.L enclosure, with a 61.44 TB version likely at the three-quarter point.

The LD4 uses 218-layer BiCS 8 flash and appears to succeed the October 2023 LD2, which ran on PCIe 3 with identical capacities. It supports NVMe 2.0, OCP specification 2.6 and full-path safeguards against data loss. Kioxia skipped an LD3, so the LD4 follows the LD2 after roughly three years and swaps in a faster PCIe 5 bus. Rival E1.L drives with a PCIe 5 interface include Micron's 6550 ION, DapuStor's R6060 and FADU's Echo, TechRadar reported. As of the time of writing, Kioxia had not released speed or durability figures for the LD4.

Editor's Summary

Kioxia has introduced an upgraded GP-series SSD that tops 20 million random-read IOPS using third-generation XL-FLASH memory, part of its push to challenge DRAM in AI infrastructure. It also showed the LD4 QLC drive in E1.L form with PCIe 5 and capacities up to 30.72 TB, though Kioxia has not disclosed its performance or endurance figures.