Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that it has begun sampling new Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver. 4.1 embedded memory devices, reinforcing its leadership in high-performance storage. Engineered to meet the demands of next-generation mobile applications, including advanced smartphones with on-device AI, the new devices offer improved performance with greater power efficiency, in a small BGA package.

UFS Ver. 4.1 devices from Kioxia integrate the company's innovative BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and a controller in a JEDEC-standard package. These new UFS devices are built with Kioxia's 8th generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory. This generation introduces CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology—an architectural innovation that marks a step-change in flash memory design. By directly bonding the CMOS circuitry to the memory array, CBA technology enables major gains in power efficiency, performance and density.

In an ongoing effort to improve the usability of AI vector database searches within retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems by optimizing the use of solid-state drives (SSDs), Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced an update to its KIOXIA AiSAQ (All-in-Storage ANNS with Product Quantization) software. This new open-source release introduces flexible controls allowing system architects to define the balance point between search performance and the number of vectors, which are opposing factors in the fixed capacity of SSD storage in the system. The resulting benefit enables architects of RAG systems to fine tune the optimal balance of specific workloads and their requirements, without any hardware modifications.

First introduced in January 2025, KIOXIA AiSAQ software uses a novel approximate nearest neighbor search (ANNS) algorithm that is optimized for SSDs and eliminates the need to store index data in DRAM. By enabling vector searches directly on SSDs and reducing host memory requirements, KIOXIA AiSAQ technology allows vector databases to scale, largely without the restrictions caused by limited DRAM capacity.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the development and prototype demonstration of its new KIOXIA CD9P Series PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs. These next-generation drives are the latest SSDs built with KIOXIA's 8th generation BiCS FLASH TLC-based 3D flash memory. KIOXIA BiCS FLASH features CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, a breakthrough architecture that significantly boosts power efficiency, performance, and storage density, while doubling the capacity available per SSD compared with the previous generation model.

As GPU-accelerated AI servers drive up the demands on storage infrastructure, maintaining high throughput, low latency, and consistent performance is critical - including keeping valuable GPUs highly utilized. The KIOXIA CD9P Series is purpose-built for these next-generation environments, delivering the speed and responsiveness required by AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads to ensure GPUs stay fed with data and operating at maximum efficiency.

TrendForce's latest investigations reveal that several negative factors weighed on the enterprise SSD market in the first quarter of 2025. These include production challenges for next-gen AI systems and persistent inventory overhang in North America. As a result, major clients significantly scaled back orders, causing the ASP of enterprise SSDs to plunge nearly 20%. This led to QoQ revenue declines for the top five enterprise SSD vendors, reflecting a period of market adjustment.

However, conditions are expected to improve in the second quarter. As shipments of NVIDIA's new chips ramp up, demand for AI infrastructure in North America is rising. Meanwhile, Chinese CSPs are steadily expanding storage capacity in their data centers. Together, these trends are set to reinvigorate the enterprise SSD market, with overall revenue projected to return to positive growth.

Kioxia announced its medium to long-term growth strategy and as a part of its growth strategy, the company is betting on advanced SSD technology to capture more market share. The company's most ambitious project is a breakthrough SSD that combines their XL-FLASH memory with a brand-new controller design. "We're taking our ultra-fast XL-Flash memory chips, which use single-level cells, and pairing them with a completely new controller," a company representative explained. "This combination should give us unprecedented performance for small-scale data operations. We're targeting over 10 million IOPS, and we plan to have samples ready by the second half of 2026." The company is also working closely with major GPU manufacturers to optimize performance for AI and graphics-intensive applications.

Meanwhile, Kioxia is rolling out its current generation of SSDs built on 8th generation BiCS FLASH technology. The CM9 series targets AI systems that need both blazing speed and rock-solid reliability to get the most out of expensive GPU hardware. On the other end, the LC9 series focuses on massive storage capacity, hitting 122 terabytes per drive for applications like large-scale databases that power AI inference systems.

Kioxia at the 2025 Computex showcased its next-generation Exceria PRO G2 M.2 NVMe SSD for PC enthusiasts. The drive is under development, and leverages PCI-Express Gen 5. What's most interesting is the first-party claim that the drive offers sequential speeds of over 14 GB/s, which would make this contemporary against high-end Gen 5 SSDs in the market, but with the brand trust and market reach of Kioxia. The drive comes in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities. Also shown in its booth were the enterprise CM9 drives in U.2 NVMe Gen 5 x4 and E3.S form-factors. Winding things up is an Exceria Gen 4 NVMe SSD with sequential speeds of 6.2 GB/s, with a heatsink, meant for PlayStation 5.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the development and prototype demonstration of its new KIOXIA CM9 Series PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs. These next-generation drives are the first enterprise SSDs built with KIOXIA's 8th generation BiCS FLASH TLC-based 3D flash memory, which incorporates CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology - an architectural innovation that delivers significant advances in power efficiency, performance and density, while doubling available capacity per flash device.

As the demands of modern computing intensify, applications such as AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing require a sophisticated solid state storage infrastructure - requiring not only enterprise-class performance but also higher power efficiency to ensure scalability and manageable operational costs. Addressing these requirements is central to the design of the KIOXIA CM9 Series, which is purpose-built to support next-generation data center workloads.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that its EXCERIA PLUS G2 Portable SSD Series received the Red Dot Design Award in the "Product Design 2025" category. The Red Dot Design Award is one of the world's most prestigious design awards which honors the very best in design every year. Winners will be honored at the Red Dot Design Award ceremony on July 8th in Essen, Germany.

The Red Dot jury, composed of internationally recognized design experts, selected the EXCERIA PLUS G2 portable SSD Series for its sleek design, user-centric functionality and durable build. The award recognized the smooth, rounded aluminium housing, lack of visible screws for a seamless feel, and heat dissipation and impact resistance solutions through design.

Kioxia Corporation, AIO Core Co., Ltd. and Kyocera Corporation today announced the development of a prototype of a PCIe 5.0-compatible broadband SSD with an optical interface (broadband optical SSD). The three companies will develop technologies for broadband optical SSDs to enhance their suitability for advanced applications that require high-speed transfer of large data, such as generative AI, and will also apply them to proof-of-concept (PoC) tests for future social implementation.

The new prototype achieved functional operation with the high-speed PCIe 5.0 interface, which is twice the bandwidth of the previous PCIe 4.0 generation, through the combination of AIO Core's IOCore optical transceiver and Kyocera's OPTINITY optoelectronic integration module technologies. In next-generation green data centers, by replacing the electrical wiring interface with optical and utilizing broadband optical SSD technology significantly increases the physical distance between the compute and storage devices, while maintaining energy efficiency and high signal quality. It also contributes to the flexibility and efficiency of data center system design, where digital diversification and the evolution of generative AI require complex, high-volume, high-speed data processing.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, highlighted the critical role of Kioxia's next-generation high-performance storage solutions for AI applications at the China Flash Market Summit/MemoryS 2025 ("CFMS 2025") held on March 12 in Shenzhen, China.

At CFMS 2025, theme as "MEMORY LANDSCAPE, VALUE RE-SHAPE", Kioxia exhibited its eighth-generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology, for efficient and reliable storage solutions required by evolving cloud computing and large-scale AI models. Kioxia also presented its SSD product lineup which meets high performance, high efficiency, and high scalability required for AI applications. Kioxia's exhibition included its recently-announced KIOXIA LC9 Series, its first high-capacity 122.88 terabyte (TB) NVMe enterprise SSD which incorporates 2 terabit (Tb) QLC BiCS FLASH.

Kioxia's LC9 Series 122.88 TB NVMe SSD was photographed on the show floor at NVIDIA's GTC 2025 by Tom's Hardware, revealing the first production-ready implementation of the company's BiCS FLASH generation 8 3D QLC technology with 2 Tb die density. The 2.5-inch form factor drive delivers immense storage density in the enterprise SSD market on a PCIe 5.0 connection. The LC9 Series features a dual-port design providing 32 GT/s throughput via PCIe 5.0 1x4 or 2x2 configurations, with NVMe 2.0 and NVMe-MI compliance. Built specifically to address density requirements for AI workloads, the drive leverages CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) technology in its flash architecture. The enterprise-class unit is rated at 0.3 drive writes per day (DWPD) and 67,000 TBW endurance, positioning it for read-intensive applications rather than write-heavy workloads. The reported read speeds are around 15 GB/s, as demonstrated at the booth.

The LC9 supports vector database operations through Kioxia's AiSAQ technology implementation, which transfers vector database operations from DRAM to SSD storage. This approach significantly reduces system-level costs while maintaining acceptable latency profiles for AI RAG operations. Kioxia demonstrated the SSD at booth #1811 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center through March 21, with live performance demonstrations highlighting its capabilities in AI dataset retrieval operations. The drive represents a critical advancement for enterprise AI infrastructure where data density and retrieval speeds are becoming bottlenecks in scaled LLM deployments. A massive capacity will allow entire enterprises to operate AI LLMs on top of company data with RAG and at low latency and high endurance.

Kioxia Corporation and Sandisk Corporation have pioneered a state-of-the-art 3D flash memory technology, setting the industry benchmark with a 4.8 Gb/s NAND interface speed, superior power efficiency, and heightened density

Unveiled at ISSCC 2025, the new 3D flash memory innovation, together with the companies' revolutionary CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, incorporates one of the latest interface standards, Toggle DDR6.0 for NAND flash memory, and leverages the SCA (Separate Command Address) protocol, a novel command address input method of its interface, and PI-LTT (Power Isolated Low-Tapped Termination) technology, which is instrumental in further reducing power consumption.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced the open-source release of its new All-in-Storage ANNS with Product Quantization (AiSAQ) technology. A novel "approximate nearest neighbor" search (ANNS) algorithm optimized for SSDs, KIOXIA AiSAQ software delivers scalable performance for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) without placing index data in DRAM - and instead searching directly on SSDs.

Generative AI systems demand significant compute, memory and storage resources. While they have the potential to drive transformative breakthroughs across various industries, their deployment often comes with high costs. RAG is a critical phase of AI that refines large language models (LLMs) with data specific to the company or application.

TrendForce's latest research report highlights that the NAND Flash industry will continue to face dual pressure from weak demand and oversupply in 2025. In response, manufacturers including Micron, Kioxia/SanDisk, Samsung, and SK hynix/Solidigm have similar plans to cut production—a move that could accelerate industry consolidation in the long term.

TrendForce reports that NAND Flash manufacturers are primarily implementing production cuts by lowering utilization rates and delaying process upgrades. These actions are driven by three major factors:

Kioxia had a small dugout at the 2025 International CES. The NAND flash major tends to have a much bigger booth at FMS than CES. The one in Vegas had its latest enterprise SSDs, all of which were launched through 2024, and a couple of new things. We first got a practical demo of how Kioxia achieves 218 layers of NAND flash in its latest generation of BiCS Flash using an architectural innovation called CBA—CMOS directly bonded to array. In CBA, the cell array acts like a pizza topping to the crust that is the CMOS layer, rather than being arranged side-by-side. This allows for greater density of flash cells. This also has certain performance and power advantages.

Next up, the company showed us their automotive-grade UFS 4.0 non-volatile storage device, which uses the latest 218-layer 3D NAND flash memory. This device was announced toward the end of 2024, and gathered a salad of certifications that make it fit for the latest generation of automobiles with advanced technology such as FSD, or an infotainment system that's practically as powerful as a PC. We also got a fascinating look at the testbed Kioxia uses to validate its automotive UFS 4.0 devices.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of JESD220G: Universal Flash Storage 4.1. In addition, an update to the complementary JESD223F UFS Host Controller Interface (UFSHCI) version 4.1 standard has also been published. Developed for mobile applications and computing systems requiring high performance with low power consumption, UFS 4.1 offers faster data access and improved performance over the earlier version of the standard while maintaining hardware compatibility to UFS 4.0. Both standards are available for download from the JEDEC website.

"JEDEC members are continually innovating to shape the standards that will drive the next generation of mobile devices and advanced applications, and the committee's dedication to ongoing improvements to the UFS series is paving the way for future innovation," said Mian Quddus, Chairman of the JEDEC Board of Directors and the JC-64 Committee for Embedded Memory Storage and Removable Memory Cards.

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 today introduced the Exceria Plus G4, a mid-range M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive takes advantage of the PCI-Express 5.0 x4 host interface, and comes in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB. Both models offer sequential read speeds of up to 10,000 MB/s, but while the 1 TB model offers up to 7,900 MB/s sequential writes, the 2 TB model does up to 8,200 MB/s. 4K random access performance for both models are listed at up to 1.3 million IOPS reads, with up to 1.4 million IOPS writes. The 1 TB model endures up to 600 TBW of writes, while the 2 TB model is double that, at 1,200 TBW. Under the hood, the Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 appears to combine a Phison E31T series DRAMless NVMe Gen 5 controller, with Kioxia 218-layer BiCS flash memory. The company is backing the drive with 5-year product warranty. It didn't reveal pricing information.

TrendForce's latest investigations found that the enterprise SSD market experienced significant growth in 3Q24, driven by robust demand from AI-related applications. Prices surged as suppliers struggled to keep pace with market needs, pushing overall industry revenue up by an impressive 28.6% QoQ. Demand for high-capacity models was especially strong, fueled by the arrival of NVIDIA's H-series products and sustained orders for AI training servers. As a result, the total procurement volume for enterprise SSDs rose 15% compared to the previous quarter.

Looking ahead to 4Q24, TrendForce forecasts a slowdown in enterprise SSD revenue as procurement demand begins to cool. Total procurement volume is expected to dip, with the peak buying period behind and server OEM orders being slightly revised downward. As shipment volume declines, overall industry revenue is also projected to decrease in the fourth quarter.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced the development of OCTRAM (Oxide-Semiconductor Channel Transistor DRAM), a new type of 4F2 DRAM, comprised of an oxide-semiconductor transistor that has a high ON current, and an ultra-low OFF current, simultaneously. This technology is expected to realize a low power DRAM by bringing out the ultra-low leakage property of the InGaZnO transistor. This was first announced at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco, CA on December 9, 2024. This achievement was jointly developed by Nanya Technology and Kioxia Corporation. This technology has the potential to lower power consumption in a wide range of applications, including AI and post-5G communication systems, and IoT products.

The OCTRAM utilizes a cylinder-shaped InGaZnO vertical transistor (Fig.1) as a cell transistor. This design enables the adaptation of a 4F2 DRAM, which offers significant advantages in memory density compared to the conventional silicon-based 6F2 DRAM.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that its Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver. 4.0 embedded flash memory devices designed for automotive applications have received Automotive SPICE (ASPICE) Capability Level 2 (CL2) certification. Kioxia is the first company to be awarded this distinction for automotive grade UFS Ver. 4.0 certification.

Automotive SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination), based on the ISO/IEC 33000 series of standards, is an internationally recognized framework for assessing and improving software development processes, specifically tailored to the automotive industry. Achieving ASPICE CL2 certification signifies that Kioxia has implemented structured processes for project management and software development, ensuring consistent quality and traceability. This certification is a testament to Kioxia's capability to meet the stringent software development and quality standards that automotive manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers demand in automotive grade UFS Ver. 4.0 devices, further solidifying its leadership in the embedded memory market for automotive applications.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that it has been adopted by Japan's national research and development agency, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), for its groundbreaking proposal on the Development of Manufacturing Technology for Innovative Memory to enhance the post-5G information and communication system infrastructure.

In the post-5G information and communication era, AI is estimated to generate an unprecedented volume of data. This surge will likely escalate the data processing demands of data centers and increase power consumption. To address this, it is crucial that the next-generation memories facilitate rapid data transfer with high-performance processors while increasing capacity and reducing power consumption.

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 Europe, a worldwide leader in memory solutions, announce the EXCERIA PLUS G2 Portable SSD Series, a new external storage solution. Utilizing KIOXIA's SSD technology and BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory, the EXCERIA PLUS G2 Portable SSD Series features a compact, elegant, and handy design that is ideal for on-the-go users and content creators.

The KIOXIA EXCERIA PLUS Portable SSD series puts emphasis on both timeless design and portability with its elegant, pocket-sized housing. Compact and easy-to-grip, this portable SSD series fits up to 2 TB of data in the palm of your hand. Smaller and lighter compared to its award-winning predecessor, the new EXCERIA PLUS G2 Portable SSD's aluminium housing further improves ergonomics while enabling effective heat dissipation during heavy workloads. With speeds of up to 1050 MB/s read and 1000 MB/s write, the EXCERIA PLUS G2 Portable SSD Series features a slim USB Type-C connector with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface enabling fast transferring of 4K videos and high-res photos. Capacities will be offered in 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB.

Solid State Storage Technology Corporation (SSSTC) launches the EJ5 series PCIe 5.0 SSD, specifically designed for enterprise applications focusing on AI, data centers, and high-performance computing (HPC) fields. This SSD aims to provide exceptional performance and reliability, particularly designed for enterprise-grade servers, rugged devices, and high-intensity workloads for mixed-use applications with U.2 and E3.S specifications.

The EJ5 series SSD is well-suited for high-intensity applications such as AI and machine learning (ML) processing, virtualization, and real-time data analysis, as well as large database management. This series adopts PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 2.0 technology, with maximum sequential read and write speeds of up to 14 GB/s and 7.5 GB/s, and random read and write speeds reaching 2500K IOPS and 670K IOPS, respectively. Even under varying workloads and intense read/write operations, the QoS performance remains highly consistent, ensuring stable performance across different applications. In addition to ultra-high performance and stability, the EJ5 series features ultra-low latency, with random write latency as low as 14μs, providing rapid and stable data processing capabilities for AI applications.