Looking at 2024, storage technology upgrades have already brought many conveniences to AI computing and cloud applications. From the launch of Kioxia’s first mass-produced automotive-grade UFS 4.0 at the beginning of the year, which has driven industry development, to the collaboration with HPE to send RM, PM, and XG series SSDs to the International Space Station, and the introduction of the 8th generation BiCS FLASH™ QLC with capacities up to 2Tb, showcasing the next-generation optical structure SSD, Kioxia and its partners have not only met current storage application needs but also laid the foundation for new technological feasibility in future storage.
01
Larger Storage Capacities
AI computing demands stricter requirements for enterprise-level storage. Tera-level large models can easily fill a 30TB enterprise SSD, making larger storage solutions imperative. At the beginning of the year, Kioxia officially released the 8th generation BiCS FLASH™ and, in response to market demands, provided both TLC and QLC product lines.
Among them, QLC can better increase storage capacity within a unit space. The bit density of the 8th generation BiCS FLASH™ 2Tb QLC is approximately 2.3 times higher than the QLC products of Kioxia’s 5th generation BiCS FLASH™. Write efficiency has improved by about 70%. Furthermore, the new QLC product architecture can stack 16 chips in a single storage package, offering the industry-leading 4TB capacity with a more compact package design, measuring just 11.5×13.5mm and a height of 1.5mm.
This means that future storage products using the 8th generation BiCS FLASH QLC will have a qualitative leap in storage space, easily enabling enterprise-level SSDs and data center-level SSDs to scale up to 120TB or more. Pure Storage has already begun testing the 8th generation BiCS FLASH™ 2Tb QLC flash products and believes that utilizing BiCS FLASH™ technology in unified all-flash data storage platforms can not only meet the rigorous requirements of artificial intelligence but also achieve highly competitive backup storage costs.
Additionally, the 8th generation BiCS FLASH™ has comprehensively optimized its logic circuits, increasing storage density by more than 50% while improving NAND I/O speed by over 60%, enabling transfer rates of up to 3200MT/s. This significantly improves read latency, providing higher storage capacity for data centers and personal computers, and allowing more space for batteries, personalization, and thin designs.
02
PCIe 5.0 and EDSFF Accelerate Deployment
As the PCIe 6.0 to PCIe 7.0 specifications mature, PCIe 5.0 enterprise storage has entered an accelerated adoption phase. In October this year, Kioxia officially launched the new XD8 series PCIe® 5.0 EDSFF (Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor) E1.S solid-state drives. It is Kioxia’s third-generation E1.S SSD, compliant with PCIe 5.0 (32 GT/s x 4) and NVMe 2.0 specifications, and supports the OCP Data Center NVMeSSD v2.5 specification.
PCIe 5.0 offers twice the transmission efficiency of PCIe 4.0. Its high bandwidth and low latency features allow SSDs to provide more concurrent access under high-load scenarios. Higher IOPS also enable servers to play a critical role in AI, databases, virtualization, and multimedia editing.
Moreover, when combined with PCIe 5.0, the EDSFF specification takes efficiency to the next level. EDSFF offers better heat dissipation efficiency, allowing for higher storage densities, flexible interface forms, and support for Compute Express Link™ (CXL™), providing storage solutions with more flexible and faster configurations.
The newly launched Kioxia XD8 series is already ready to support the next generation of storage. Designed for cloud and hyperscale environments, it meets the growing demand from data centers for high performance, high efficiency, and scalability. With this new solid-state drive, cloud service providers and hyperscale enterprises can optimize infrastructure while maintaining operational efficiency and delivering exceptional performance.
03
Building Future Storage
In the post-5G era of information and communications, AI has begun generating unprecedented volumes of data. Kioxia is actively exploring more possibilities for forward-looking storage, such as XL-FLASH storage-class memory (SCM) based on phase-change storage principles combined with CXL, developing memory that consumes less power than DRAM, has higher bit density, and faster read speeds than flash memory. This not only improves memory utilization but also contributes to energy savings.
In the automotive-grade storage sector, Kioxia has obtained the Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (Automotive SPICE®) Level 2 (CL2) certification. Kioxia is the first company to receive this certification for automotive-grade UFS 4.0 products, which means Kioxia’s automotive-grade UFS 4.0 has entered a structured project management and software development process to ensure product quality consistency and traceability. It not only meets the rigorous software development and quality standards required by automakers and tier-one suppliers for automotive-grade UFS 4.0 devices but also indicates that Kioxia’s automotive-grade UFS 4.0 will be featured in future high-performance automotive multimedia systems.
Additionally, Kioxia has announced the development of OCTRAM (Oxide-Semiconductor Channel Transistor DRAM), a new 4F²DRAM made from oxide semiconductor transistors with high conduction current and ultra-low leakage current. This technology uses InGaZnO (indium gallium zinc oxide) transistors to reduce leakage rates to very low levels, thus reducing DRAM power consumption. Whether for SSD independent cache or memory products, this technology offers the potential for high-performance, low-power products.
Clearly, 2025 will continue to be a year filled with technological challenges and innovations. Kioxia and its partners are already prepared to face new challenges, and the new storage technologies and solutions will shine in commercial scenarios such as AI acceleration, cloud computing, virtualization applications, and data center deployments. At the same time, laptops, smartphones, and XR devices will have more possibilities due to the improvement in storage chip performance and the reduction in size, offering users a better storage experience.
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