This week at CES 2025, KIOXIA America, Inc. will highlight the transformative potential of flash memory. As pioneers of NAND flash technology, KIOXIA will demonstrate how its innovative solutions empower users to achieve more, tackle challenges, and unlock creativity—making everyday moments and groundbreaking innovations possible.

Visitors to the KIOXIA exhibit will discover how flash memory is redefining storage for a digital-first world. The company will showcase cutting-edge solutions for diverse industries, from memory and SSDs for artificial intelligence and automotive to flash products for consumer and industrial applications.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced that it has begun mass production of the industry's first Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver. 4.0 embedded flash memory devices with 4-bit-per-cell, quadruple-level cell (QLC) technology.

QLC UFS offers a higher bit density than traditional TLC UFS, making it suitable for mobile applications that require higher storage capacities. Advancements in controller technology and error correction have enabled QLC technology to achieve this while maintaining competitive performance. KIOXIA's new 512 gigabyte (GB) QLC UFS achieves sequential read speeds of up to 4,200 megabytes per second (MB/s) and sequential write speeds of up to 3,200 MB/s, taking full advantage of the UFS 4.0 interface speed.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that the company's research papers have been accepted for presentation at IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) 2024, a prestigious international conference to be held in San Francisco, USA, from December 7th to 11th.

Kioxia is committed to the research and development of semiconductor memory, which is indispensable for the advancement of AI and the digital transformation of society. Beyond its state-of-the-art three-dimensional (3D) flash memory technology BiCS FLASH, Kioxia excels at research in emerging memory solutions. The company is constantly striving to meet the needs for future computing and storage systems with innovative memory products.

The first reviews of Silicon Motion's new PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD controller, the SM2508 are starting to appear online, and the good news is that the controller is as power efficient as promised by the company. Tom's hardware has put up their review of a reference design M.2 SSD from Silicon Motion and in their testing, equipped with 1 TB of Kioxia's 162-layer BiCS6 TLC NAND. It easily bests the competition when it comes to power efficiency. In their file copy test, it draws nearly two watts less than its nearest competitor and as much as three watts less than the most power hungry drive. It's still using about one watt more than the best PCIe 4.0 drives, but it goes to show that the production nodes matters, as the SM2508 is produced on a 6 nm node, compared to 12 nm for Phison's E26.

We should point out that the peak power consumption did go over nine watts, but only one of the Phison E26 drives managed to stay below 10 watts here. The most power hungry PCIe 5.0 SSD controller in the test, the InnoGrit IG5666 peaks at nearly 14 watts for comparison. Idle power consumption of the SM2508 is also very good, still drawing more than the PCIe 4.0 drives it was tested against, but far less than any of the other PCIe 5.0 drives. What about performance you ask? The reference drive places itself ahead of all the Phison E26 drives when it comes to sequential file transfers, regardless if it's to or from the drive. Random read IOPS also places right at the top, but it's somewhat behind when it comes to random writes, without being a slow drive by any means. Overall we're looking at a very promising new SSD controller from Silicon Motion with the SM2508 and TPU has also received a sample that is currently undergoing testing, so expect a review here soon.

Western Digital, a leader in Flash and HDD data storage, is unveiling groundbreaking solutions and technology demonstrations at FMS 2024 that raise the bar for performance, capacity and efficiency for transformative AI Data Cycle workloads. These innovations cater to diverse market segments from hyperscale cloud to automotive and consumer storage. Attendees will also gain insights from a keynote address by Rob Soderbery, executive vice president and general manager of Western Digital's Flash Business Unit, on Tuesday at 3 PM. During the keynote, Soderbery will delve into the strategic advancements propelling the future of NAND, AI and data storage from the data center to the edge.

"As AI technologies advance and become increasingly embedded in the world around us, the demand for storage will only continue to grow," said Soderbery. "Western Digital's product and technology roadmaps are strategically aligned to ensure our customers have the most advanced, reliable solutions to stay ahead in the rapidly changing AI landscape. This holistic approach ensures that our customers receive the most power-efficient, high-performing and high-capacity solutions tailored to their specific needs. We are excited to showcase our full range of products and new technologies and demonstrate how they can transform AI now and into the future."

Phison, a global leader in NAND controllers and storage solutions, is set to showcase its cutting-edge technologies at the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) 2024. The event will highlight the new Pascari D-Series D200V, a datacenter SSD with up to 61.44 TB alongside the latest capabilities of aiDAPTIV+ Pro Suite, the company's end-to-end on-premises generative AI solution. Each solution is purpose-built to meet the demands of modern, data-intensive workloads, from small to medium-sized businesses looking to leverage GenAI through aiDAPTIV+, to enterprises scaling quickly with Pascari Data Center storage. These solutions allow users the necessary storage, scalability and processing power for data-hungry AI workloads.

The Pascari D200V is the latest addition to Phison's renowned D-Series product family. This SSD is designed for data centers and comes in the most popular form factors. "Pascari's new D200V scales to 61.44 TB today with Kioxia BiCS FLASH generation 8 QLC flash memory," says K.S. Pua, CEO of Phison Electronics. "The D-Series also allows room to scale beyond 100 TB, providing data centers with the large capacity options needed to reduce operating costs."

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that it started sample shipments of 2 Tb (Tera bit) Quad-Level-Cell (QLC) memory devices with its eighth-generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology. This 2 Tb QLC device has the highest capacity in the industry, elevating storage devices to a new capacity point that will drive growth in multiple application segments including AI.

With its latest BiCS FLASH technology, Kioxia has achieved both vertical and lateral scaling of memory die through proprietary processes and innovative architectures. In addition, the company has implemented the groundbreaking CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, which enables the creation of higher density devices and an industry-leading interface speed of 3.6 Gbps. Together, these advanced technologies are applied in the creation of 2 Tb QLC, resulting in the industry's highest capacity memory device.

Western Digital has released a new budget friendly SSD that got a serious jump in model number, since the company decided to call it the SN5000. Its predecessor is the SN580 launched just under a year ago and price wise, it's the better option of the two. The new SN5000 uses the same BiCS 5 TLC NAND as the SN580 on the 500 GB to the 2 TB SKU, but according to Anandtech, the 4 TB uses BiCS 6 QLC NAND. The SN5000 is still a PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe drive, but the overall performance has been significantly improved. If we use the 1 TB SKU for comparison, then the sequential read speeds have gone up by 1 GB/s from 4150 MB/s to 5150 MB/s. The sequential write speed is up 750 MB/s from 4150 MB/s to 4900 MB/s.

As for random performance, the read IOPS are up from 600K IOPS to 730K IOPS and the write IOPS are up slightly from 750K to 770K. The 4 TB QLC SKU is said to deliver even better performance with the exception of the random read IOPS. The 1 TB SKU is said to have a write endurance of 600 TBW, but the 4 TB SKU only offers 1200 TBW. That's 0.33 drive writes per day (DWPD) for the 1 TB SKU vs. 0.16 DWPD for the 4 TB SKU, showing the weakness of the QLC NAND. A new feature for the SN5000 series compared to previous WD Blue NVMe drives is support for TGC Pyrite 2.01 encryption. The WD SN5000-series starts at US$70 for the 500 GB model, going up to US$80 for 1 TB, US$140 for 2 TB and topping out at US$280 for the 4 TB model. WD only seems to have the 500 GB model in stock, with all the others being available in 3-4 weeks time. All SKUs come with a five year warranty.

MSI also brought plenty of SSD products to the Computex 2024 show, including the new SPATIUM M560 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD based on the Phison E31T controller and Kioxia's 218-layer BiCS 3D TLC NAND, the new SPATIUM non-metal Vapor Chamber SSD Thermal Solution, and a couple of SSD accessories, including the DATAMAG Magnetic Portable SSD and the DATAVAULT SSD Enclosure.

As said, the new SPATIUM M560 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD will use the Phison 7 nm E31T controller paired up with Kioxia 8th generation 218-layer BiCS 3D TLC NAND and offer transfer rates of up to 10,000 MB/s. The controller, according to MSI, should bring up to a 15 percent reduction in power consumption as well as "maximize bandwidths and link efficiency". It will be available in 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, and MSI will probably have a version that will include the new SPATIUM non-metal Vapor Chamber SSD Thermal Solution which has been also showcased at the Computex 2024 show. MSI says that this is yet another world's first, which uses "a two-phase flow transition of gas and liquid with minimal signal interference, ensuring rapid and silent heat exchange." According to MSI, the new SPATIUM non-metal Vapor Chamber SSD Thermal Solution should provide up to 11 degrees lower temperature compared to a standard aluminium heatsink.

Sabrent today debuted the Rocket 4 line of DRAMless M.2 NVMe Gen 4 SSDs. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, these drives take advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, and provide sequential transfer speeds of up to 7.4 GB/s reads, with up to 6.4 GB/s writes. The drives also offer 4K random access performance of up to 1 million IOPS reads, and 0.95 million IOPS writes. For now, Sabrent is launching 1 TB and 2 TB capacity variants of the Rocket 4, but the company is preparing to launch a larger 4 TB variant soon.

The Sabrent Rocket 4 combines a Phison E27T series DRAMless controller with Kioxia 162-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory (also known as the BiCS 6). There's just a copper foil heat spreader to keep things cool. The 12 nm E27T doesn't run anywhere near as hot as the E18, so you can make do with the heatsink your motherboard includes, or run it the way it is. The 1 TB variant is priced at $99.99, and the 2 TB variant at $199.99. The company didn't reveal pricing of the unreleased 4 TB variant.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced sampling of the industry's first Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver. 4.0 embedded flash memory devices designed for automotive applications. These new, higher performing devices deliver fast embedded storage transfer speeds in a small package size and are targeted to a variety of next-generation automotive applications, including telematics, infotainment systems and ADAS. The improved performance] of UFS products from Kioxia - including approximately +100% for sequential read speed and approximately +40% for sequential write speed - enables these applications to take advantage of 5G's connectivity benefits, leading to faster system startup times and a better user experience.

The first to introduce UFS technology, Kioxia continues to move the technology forward. Its new UFS Ver. 4.0 devices integrate the company's innovative BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and a controller in a JEDEC-standard package. UFS 4.0 incorporates MIPI M-PHY 5.0 and UniPro 2.0 and supports theoretical interface speeds of up to 23.2 Gbps per lane or 46.4 Gbps per device. UFS 4.0 is backward compatible with UFS 3.1.

The PC master race has yielded many interesting activities for enthusiasts alike, with perhaps the pinnacle of activities being overclocking. Usually, subjects for overclocking include CPUs, GPUs, and RAM, with other components not actually being capable of overclocking. However, the enthusiast force never seems to settle, and today, we have proof of overclocking an off-the-shelf 2.5-inch SATA III NAND Flash SSD thanks to Gabriel Ferraz, a Computer Engineering graduate, and TechPowerUp's SSD database maintainer. He uses the RZX Pro 256 GB SSD in the video, a generic NAND Flash drive. The RZX Pro uses the Silicon Motion SM2259XT2 single-core, 32-bit ARC CPU running up to 550 MHz. It has two channels at 400 MHz, each with eight chip enable interconnects, allowing up to 16 NAND Flash dies to operate. The SSD doesn't feature a DRAM cache or support a host memory buffer. It has only one NAND Flash memory chip from Kioxia, uses BiCS FLASH 4 architecture, has 96 layers, and has 256 GB capacity.

While this NAND Flash die is rated for up to 400 MHz or 800 MT/s, it only ran at less than half the speed at 193.75 MHz or 387.5 MT/s at default settings. Gabriel acquired a SATA III to USB 3.0 adapter with a JMS578 bridge chip to perform the overclock. This adapter allows hot swapping of SSDs without the need to turn off the PC. He shorted two terminals in the drive's PCB to get the SSD to operate without its default safe mode. Mass Production Tools (MPTools), which OEMs use to flash SSDs, were used to change the firmware settings. Each NAND Flash architecture has its own special version of MPTools. The software directly shows control of the Flash clock, CPU clock, and output driving. However, additional tweaks like Flash IO driving with subdivisions need modifications. Control and Flash On-Die Termination (ODT) and Schmitt window trigger (referring to the Schmitt trigger comparator circuit) also needed a few modifications to make it work.

ADATA Industrial, the world's leading brand for industrial-grade embedded storage, officially released today its SATA 31D series of industrial-grade solid-state drives including 2.5-inch ISSS31D, M.2 2280 IM2S31D8, and M.2 2242 IM2S31D4, designed for retail terminals and embedded systems.

The SATA 31D series of industrial-grade SSDs utilize 112-layer 3D TLC flash memory developed by WDC, boasting a P/E Cycle of 3,000 which is comparable to MLC. The 31D series also offers a variety of ultra-thin and compact mainstream specifications such as SATA 2.5-inch, M.2 2280, M.2 2242, and various capacity options from 128 GB to 2 TB. 112-layer 3D NAND (BiCS5) 31D series SSDs all support thermal throttling technology, which reduces SSD transmission performance in stages to effectively mitigate the risk of data damage due to overheating. Furthermore, a LDPC ECC error correction mechanism and End-to-End Data Protection technology ensure reliable data transfer and improve data integrity. The 31D series is eminently suitable for POS systems, information kiosks, digital signage, and embedded equipment.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced sampling of new, higher performing JEDEC e-MMC Ver. 5.1-compliant embedded flash memory products for consumer applications. The new products integrate a newer version of the company's BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and a controller in a single package, reducing processor workload and improving ease of use. Both 64 and 128 gigabytes (GB) products will be available.

As the market continues to shift to UFS, there are cases where e-MMC may still be used. This includes consumer products with mid-range storage requirements such as tablets, personal computers, point of sale devices and other portable handheld devices, as well as smart TVs and smart NICs. Kioxia continues to reinforce its market-leading position by delivering a broad, high-performance product lineup and expanding the available options for these applications.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the addition of the KIOXIA CD8P Series to its lineup of data center-class solid state drives (SSDs). KIOXIA CD8P drives are well-suited to general purpose server and cloud environments that can take advantage of PCIe 5.0 (32 gigatransfers/s x4) performance. These data center applications can generate complex mixed workloads spread across large scale virtualized systems. The new drives are available in capacities up to 30.72 terabytes (TB) and in both Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E3.S and 2.5-inch (U.2) form factors.

Optimized for the performance, latency, reduced power and thermal requirements of data center environments where power and cooling efficiency is critical, the KIOXIA CD8P Series provides the predictability and consistency needed for a seamless user experience. According to Jeff Janukowicz, Research Vice President, IDC, "Growth in NVMe SSDs continues with PCIe capacity shipments in servers and storage systems expected to grow at a 40% CAGR between 2022 and 2027. The new CD8P Series SSDs gives these customers the range of performance, capacity, and security choices essential for meeting the storage requirements of next-generation digital enterprise and data center infrastructure."

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced new consumer SSDs scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 2023. The EXCERIA PLUS G3 Series will leverage PCIe 4.0 technology and offer up to 2 terabytes (TB) of capacity. The new series is well-suited to mainstream users of high performance gaming PCs, desktops and notebooks, bringing the speed and affordability that they require. The EXCERIA PLUS G3 Series, which is a product under development, will be on reference exhibit at COMPUTEX TAIPEI from May 30 to June 2 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.

Featuring Kioxia's BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory TLC (Triple-Level-Cell), the EXCERIA PLUS G3 Series utilizes an M.2 2280 type single-sided form factor suitable for both desktops and mobile systems. The new drives will also support Kioxia's SSD Utility Management Software, which assists users with SSD monitoring and maintenance.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the addition of the BG6 Series to its lineup of PCIe 4.0 solid state drives (SSDs) - the first product to feature the company's new, 6th generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and almost 1.7 times the performance of its predecessor. Designed to unleash the increased speeds and affordability of PCIe 4.0 for PC users, the powerful and compact KIOXIA BG6 Series client SSDs offer a discrete M.2 2230 form factor with higher capacities and improved power efficiency. M.2 2280 single-sided form factor versions are also available.

The KIOXIA BG6 Series unlocks back-end flash performance while maintaining affordability and increasing capacity, making it an especially attractive option for commercial and consumer notebooks and desktops. KIOXIA BG6 drives support the fully matured Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology, which utilizes part of the host memory (DRAM) as if it were its own, to realize a DRAM-less, high-performance SSD.

Demonstrating continued innovation, Kioxia Corporation and Western Digital Corp. today announced details of their newest 3D flash memory technology. Applying advanced scaling and wafer bonding technologies, the 3D flash memory delivers exceptional capacity, performance and reliability at a compelling cost, which makes it ideal for meeting the needs of exponential data growth across a broad range of market segments.

"The new 3D flash memory demonstrates the benefits of our strong partnership with Kioxia and our combined innovation leadership," said Alper Ilkbahar, Senior Vice President of Technology & Strategy at Western Digital. "By working with one common R&D roadmap and continued investment in R&D, we have been able to productize this fundamental technology ahead of schedule and deliver high-performance, capital-efficient solutions."

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation ("Silicon Motion"), a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices, today announced the SM2268XT, its latest high-performance PCIe Gen 4 SSD controller solution optimized for higher speed NAND transfer rates. The SM2268XT's superior performance and robust reliability allows customers to accelerate development of next-generation SSDs using current and future TLC and QLC 3D NAND flash with comprehensive data integrity and correction without compromising throughput and latency.

The SM2268XT features a dual-core ARM R8 CPU with four lanes of 16 Gb/s PCIe data flow and supports four NAND channels with up to 3,200 MT/s per channel, enabling designers to take advantage of higher throughput next-generation high-speed TLC and QLC 3D NAND flash. Its multi-core design automatically balances the compute load to deliver industry-leading sequential read and write speeds of 7,400 MB/s & 6,500 MB/s, and random read & write speed of 1,200K IOPS. In addition, its advanced architecture enables lower power consumption and rigorous data protection, providing high performance and reliability in a cost-effective DRAM-less PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD solution.

KIOXIA is betting big on enterprise flash storage, and demoed several of its new and already-launched NVMe products based on the company's 162-layer 3D NAND flash memory, aka 6th Generation BiCS flash. Starting off, we see several single-chip solutions, namely the BiCS5 eTLC, the BiCS Industial TLC, and the BiCS5-QLC. These are complete NVMe SSDs on a single package, targeting embedded systems, industrial PCs, and the likes. They can even be directly embedded on server motherboards to serve as boot drives, freeing up precious chassis space for the main storage devices.

The EM6 is an enterprise network-attached SSD in a 2.5-inch form-factor. This is a NAS-on-a-stick that can be deployed at large scale, and accessible as a network resource, or as an NVMe-over-Fiber device. The CM7 is a high-capacity 2.5-inch (EDSFF E3.S) SSD that comes in sizes of up to 30 TB, and has PCI-Express 5.0 x4 interface with NVMe 2.0 protocol, with endurance of up to 3 DWPD and offering FIPS 140-33 security. We also see the XD6 line of EDSFF E1.S form-factor NVMe SSDs with PCIe 4.0 interfaces, up to 3.84 TB capacity, and 1 DWPD endurance.

This week at CES 2023, KIOXIA America, Inc., the inventors of NAND flash, will highlight new technologies, products, and form factors designed to meet upcoming IT requirements and standards - including PCIe 5.0 and UFS 4.0.

In an ever-changing technology landscape, where evolving standards push performance levels higher and higher, KIOXIA stands ready for what comes next - thanks to its broad, diverse lineup of flash storage solutions. "Whether it's the next connected vehicle, the next personal mobility device or the next smart city - we keep advancing flash memory to make the next thing possible," said Alex Mei, vice president of corporate marketing for KIOXIA America, Inc. "Countless consumer devices and applications require flash memory and SSDs, and we are committed to continued innovation."

Team Group, the global leader in industrial memory modules, launches the brand's first industrial grade PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 2280 SSD, P845-M80. With the adoption of the ultra-fast Gen 4 x4 interface, it delivers an exceptional reading/writing performance for a large data amount. Equipped with BiCS 5 112-layer 3D NAND flash memory, it is a highly cost-competitive solution that accelerates the development of biomedical innovation and digital medicine applications. P845-M80 comes in a maximum capacity of 2 TB and meets the NVMe 2.0 standards. Its bandwidth and data transmission speed are twice that of its predecessor PCIe Gen3, making it even more ideal for the transmission of large amounts of data. Meanwhile, its 3K P/E cycles make it the best memory solution in both performance and durability.

In the wake of the global pandemic, science and digital medicine is rapidly on the rise in innovative biomedical fields. In response to the significant increase in the demand for high-performance image processing and stable storage, Team Group introduces the PCIe Gen 4 x4 industrial grade SSD with the adoption of an 8-channel controller and optional patented graphene and aluminium fin heat dissipation technologies. It effectively reduces the thermal energy generated from high-speed reading and writing and maintains system stability. The patented graphene heat dissipation technology (US invention patent number: US 110,513,92 B2 / Taiwan invention patent number: I703921) features a small volume and agility in application, suitable for machines of smaller sizes. Whereas, the patented aluminium fin heat dissipation technology (Taiwan utility model patent number: M541645) enables maximum heat dissipation and prolongs product service life. Both technologies are novel options for biomedical innovators, offering stability, high speed, and low latency.

Furthering its mission to address future enterprise infrastructure requirements, KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced that it has expanded its broad portfolio of client, enterprise and data center SSDs with the addition of the XD7P Series. Designed for hyperscale and general server applications in the new Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E1.S form factor, XD7P drives are the second generation of E1.S SSDs with Open Compute Project (OCP) Data Center NVMe SSD 2.0 specification support from KIOXIA, following its XD6 series. KIOXIA XD7P drives are now sampling to select data center customers.

"Hyperscale needs of density, power, performance and serviceability are driving PCIe 5.0, E1.S, as a form factor, and the OCP Data Center NVMe SSD specification V2.0 for the data center," said Ross Stenfort, hardware storage engineer, Meta. "The KIOXIA XD7P Series SSD supports these storage technologies to enable the next generation of hyperscale needs."

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced the industry's first 2 terabyte (TB) microSDXC memory card working prototypes. Using its innovative BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and an in-house designed controller, basic functions of the KIOXIA 2 TB microSDXC UHS-I memory card working prototypes were confirmed in the microSDXC standard's maximum density.

As the data recording capacity of smartphones, action cameras, and portable game consoles continues to increase, the need for ultra-high capacity SD memory cards to store all of this data has never been higher. The SD Association's SDXC specification has supported memory cards up to 2 TB for more than a decade—but 2 TB cards have not been successfully manufactured until now.

KIOXIA America, Inc. has introduced new Industrial Grade flash memory devices. This new lineup utilizes the latest generation KIOXIA BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory with 3-bit-per-cell (triple-level cell, TLC) technology, and is available in a 132-BGA package. Densities range from 512 gigabits (64 gigabytes) to 4 terabits (512 gigabytes) to support the unique requirements of industrial applications - including telecommunication, networking, embedded computing and much more.

The storage requirements for many industrial applications stand in stark contrast to those of SSDs designed to be housed in climate-controlled data centers - including the need for extended temperature ranges and the ability to maintain high reliability and performance in rugged operating conditions. Designed with these needs in mind, the new KIOXIA devices support a wide temperature range (-40°C to +85°C) and offer suitable products for the industrial market.