Kioxia introduces first PCIe 6.0 SSDs with 332-layer BiCS Flash 10 memory chips

PCIe 6.0 is not ready for mainstream PCs at the moment, but the push for the training of more sophisticated AI models requiring trillions of parameters prompted the adoption of faster storage solutions in the datacenter sector, so companies like Kioxia now provide PCIe 6.0 SSDs to enterprise customers.  Kioxia’s new CM10 Series SSDs have just been unveiled, featuring the company’s latest BiCS Flash generation 10 332-layer TLC memory chips. These models support the Nvidia CMX architecture and are optimised for demanding enterprise and AI workloads, including AI inference and context caching.

As a datacenter-oriented solution, the new Kioxia CM10 SSDs support direct-cold-plate cooling standards, but also feature regular radiator support for traditional heat dissipation. Kioxia does not reveal the exact speeds, only mentioning that the PCIe 6.0 NVMe 2.1 standard delivers up to ~92 % higher sequential read performance and up to ~85 % higher random read performance over the previous PCIe 5.0 generation.

Other features include:

• Support for the Open Compute Project (OCP) Datacenter NVMe SSD Specification v2.7 plus NVMe Flexible Data Placement (FDP) compliance
• E3.S, E1.S, and 2.5-inch as well as E3.S and E1.S 9.5 mm form-factors
• Capacities starting at 1.6 TB and going up to 61.44 TB, featuring read-intensive (1 DWPD) and mixed-use (3 DWPD) endurance modes
• SIE, SED, SED FIPS 140-3 (planned), post-quantum cryptography recommended by CNSA 2.0, and SPDM 1.4 attestation for security standards

Prices are available through direct enquiry from select datacenter customers and actual speed benchmarks will be unveiled by Kioxia at the Future of Memory and Storage conference in Santa Clara, California, USA scheduled for August 4 - 6.