GIGABYTE silently introduced the AI TOP UD 1 TB SSD, a new M.2 2280 form factor model to its AI Ultra Durable series dedicated to very intensive workloads, such as AI training. GIGABYTE's AI TOP UD SSD uses PCIe 4.0, so it's not going to break any speed records against drives using PCIe 5.0. It supports the NVMe 1.4 protocol, has a 5-year limited warranty, and is currently only available in 1 TB capacity. The product has a nominal TBW of 109,500 TB, equivalent to 60 DWPD, or 60 full disk writes per day. GIGABYTE doesn't reveal what kind of 3D NAND flash it utilizes to achieve such endurance levels.

The company has previously launched a product with a similar purpose to the AI TOP 100E SSD. In comparison, the new AI TOP UD SSD has slightly lower read/write performances (6500 MB/s vs 7200 MB/s sequential read, 5700 MB/s vs 6500 MB/s sequential write) and lower MTBF (1.5 vs 1.6 million hours). Additionally, while the AI TOP 100E SSD mentions that it is equipped with 1 GB external cache, the AI TOP UD SSD specification sheet does not mention anything. Regarding operating power, the 1 TB AI TOP UD SSD uses 6.2 W (Read) and 6.5 W (Write), while the previous AI TOP 100E SSD model's power consumption levels are between 10.8 W and 11.0 W. This means that the AI TOP UD SSD has lower requirements for heat dissipation, a crucial advantage in crowded high-performance servers where thermal management is a major concern. The company only recently listed the SSD, so pricing and availability are unknown.