Direct-attached performance from network-attached devices is no longer a thing of storage architects' dreams. KIOXIA America, Inc. (formerly Toshiba Memory America, Inc.), is now sampling Ethernet SSDs to select partners and customers interested in validating the benefits of Ethernet attached storage to their existing Ethernet (RoCEv2) networks. KIOXIA has been working in collaboration with key industry players Marvell, Foxconn-Ingrasys and Accton to bring groundbreaking Ethernet Bunch of Flash (EBOF) technology solutions to market - and this announcement is pivotal to that endeavor.

In an ongoing quest to contain explosive amounts of data, storage capacity and bandwidth must continue to grow while processing time must decrease. An EBOF system addresses these challenges through an Ethernet fabric that can scale flash and optimally disaggregate storage from compute. The EBOF storage solution bypasses the cost, complexity, and system limitations inherent with standard JBOF storage systems, which typically include a CPU, DRAM, HBA, and switch. This accelerates applications and workloads where disaggregated low-latency, high bandwidth, highly available storage is needed - bringing greatly improved performance and lower total cost of ownership to edge, enterprise and cloud data centers.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with KIOXIA to enable the industry's first native Ethernet NVMe-oF SSD with Marvell's 88SN2400 controller," said Thad Omura, vice president of marketing of the Flash Business Unit at Marvell. "The native Ethernet SSD combined with our switches and controllers offer data centers an EBOF solution that lowers their total cost of ownership, increases performance and reduces power as compared to alternative JBOF solutions."

EBOF System Highlights:

• Simpler EBOF design with KIOXIA Ethernet SSD connecting directly to the embedded Ethernet switch inside EBOF
• Available EBOF 2U systems can connect up to 24 KIOXIA Ethernet SSDs with up to total 600 gigabits per second (Gbps) storage throughput
• Each system supports 2.4 terabits per second (Tb/s) of connectivity throughput which can be split between network connectivity and daisy chaining additional EBOFs
• High performance: 670K IOPS per drive, over 16M IOPS per 24 bay EBOF (@4 KB random read)
• Runs Marvell EBOF SDK, leveraging the SONiC network operating system and enabling advanced discovery and management functions

KIOXIA's new drives incorporate the Marvell NVMe-oF Ethernet SSD converter controllers into its enterprise NVMeTM SSDs, bypassing the requirement for an external Ethernet to NVMe bridge adapter.

KIOXIA Ethernet SSD Features:

• Support for single or dual 25 Gb Ethernet and RoCEv2 RDMA connection
• NVMe-oF 1.1 and NVMe 1.4 compliance
• 2.5-inch 15-millimeter (mm) Z-height form factor
• Capacities supported: 1920/3840/7680 GB
• Two-die failure recovery and other reliability features
• Support for Redfish and NVMe-MI storage management specifications
• Support for IPv4 and IPv6 architecture

"EBOF has great potential to be highly advantageous by enabling optimal storage disaggregation, eliminating costly CPU, DRAM, and AIC components," said Benjamin Ting, senior vice president for Ingrasys. "By eliminating the bottleneck formed in traditional CPU-based storage architectures to unleash the performance of SSDs, EBOF holds the key to the future of data center and HPC storage."

"Accton is pleased to collaborate with KIOXIA to deliver this innovative EBOF solution," noted Melody Chiang, senior vice president of product development and management for Accton Technology. "Explosive data center bandwidth demands are driving the requirement for increased storage capacity and bandwidth with lower latency. This disaggregated EBOF solution will address performance challenges, decrease complexity, and lower TCO. We look forward to the widespread industry adoption of this Ethernet-based storage technology."

"The Ethernet-attached storage ecosystem is an idea whose time has come," noted Alvaro Toledo, vice president of SSD marketing and product planning at KIOXIA America, Inc. "By collaborating with Marvell, Foxconn-Ingrasys and Accton to bring an EBOF system to market, we are enabling the true potential of NVMe over Fabrics. This opens up a new world of possibilities for cloud data center operators, software-defined storage providers, and server and storage system OEMs."

KIOXIA's Ethernet drives are now sampling to key industry partners and customers.