Kioxia Announces Next-Generation E1.S SSDs for AI and Hyperscale Environments

New KIOXIA NX1 Series Data Center NVMe™ SSDs Increase Performance and Support Direct Liquid Cooling

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kioxia Corporation today announced the KIOXIA NX1 Series of solid-state drives (SSDs), a new generation of E1.S PCIe^® 5.0 NVMe™ data center SSDs, and Kioxia’s first SSD with direct liquid cooling support. The KIOXIA NX1 Series features Kioxia’s next-generation, in-house developed controller architecture enabling unique capabilities today while providing a foundation for future features. The new drives are engineered to deliver high-performance, power-efficient storage for GPU-enabled servers and hyperscale data center environments.

The KIOXIA NX1 Series is the successor model of the KIOXIA XD Series, and leverages PCIe^® 5.0 performance to help cloud service providers and hyperscale operators optimize infrastructure while maintaining operational efficiency. Compared to the previous generation¹, KIOXIA NX1 SSDs deliver up to approx. 38 % higher sequential write performance and up to approx. 20 % higher random write performance².

As AI infrastructure continues to scale, storage must keep pace with increasingly dense, accelerator-rich server designs. The E1.S form factor helps maximize storage density while supporting advanced thermal management, including cold-plate-compatible direct liquid cooling configurations that enable efficient heat dissipation in high-performance AI server environments.

Additional features include:

• Available in E1.S 9.5 mm (supports direct liquid-cooling and air-cooling) and E1.S 15 mm form factors (supports air-cooling)
• 1 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) for read-intensive applications; capacity lineup from 1.92 TB to 15.36 TB³
• Compliant with PCIe^® 5.0, NVMe™ 2.0 and Open Compute Project (OCP) Datacenter NVMe™ SSD 2.6 specifications, as well as NVMe Flexible Data Placement (FDP) support
• Built with KIOXIA BiCS FLASH™ generation 8 TLC memory technology utilizing CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) architecture
• Optional TCG Opal-compliant Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) security model^4,5

The KIOXIA NX1 Series is currently sampling to select hyperscale customers. The new drives will be showcased at FMS: the Future of Memory and Storage, taking place August 4 – 6 in Santa Clara, CA.

Related KIOXIA Insights Article: Storage Solutions Empowering AI

Notes:

1: Compared to KIOXIA XD8 Series SSDs

2: Read and write speed may vary depending on various factors such as host devices, software (drivers, OS etc.), and read/write conditions.

3: Definition of capacity: Kioxia Corporation defines a megabyte (MB) as 1,000,000 bytes, a gigabyte (GB) as 1,000,000,000 bytes and a terabyte (TB) as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. A computer operating system, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1GB = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes and 1TB = 2^40 bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity (including examples of various media files) will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software and operating system, and/or pre-installed software applications, or media content. Actual formatted capacity may vary.

4: SED optional model supports TCG Opal SSC except for some features.

5: SED optional model is not available in all countries due to the local regulations.

NVMe is a registered or unregistered mark of NVM Express, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

OCP and OPEN COMPUTE PROJECT are trademarks of the Open Compute Project Foundation.

PCI Express and PCIe are registered trademarks of PCI-SIG.

Other company names, product names and service names may be trademarks of third-party companies.

About Kioxia

Kioxia is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is committed to uplifting the world with “memory” by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. Kioxia's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH™, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems.

*Information in this document, including product prices and specifications, content of services and contact information, is correct on the date of the announcement but is subject to change without prior notice.