The Pichau Kepler Z1 is a solid-state drive in the M.2 2280 form factor, launched in 2023. It is available in capacities ranging from 512 GB to 1 TB. This page reports specifications for the 512 GB variant. With the rest of the system, the Pichau Kepler Z1 interfaces using a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 connection. The SSD controller is the RTS5762 from Realtek, a DRAM cache chip is available. Pichau has installed 144-layer QLC NAND flash on the Kepler Z1, the flash chips are made by Intel. To improve write speeds, a pseudo-SLC cache is used, so bursts of incoming writes are handled more quickly. The Kepler Z1 is rated for sequential read speeds of up to 3,200 MB/s and 2,000 MB/s write; random IO reaches 182K IOPS for read and 143K for writes.
At its launch, the SSD was priced at 47 USD. The warranty length is set to one year, which is quite short for the SSD industry. Pichau guarantees an endurance rating of 375 TBW, a very high value, making this drive a good choice for write-intensive enterprise applications.