TLDR: KIOXIA has introduced the industry’s first 245.76 terabyte (TB) NVMe SSD, the KIOXIA LC9 Series, specifically engineered to meet the intensive demands of generative AI environments. This high-capacity drive offers superior performance, power efficiency, and density, aiming to optimize data lakes and accelerate AI-centric applications by replacing multiple traditional HDDs.
KIOXIA Corporation has announced a significant expansion to its high-capacity KIOXIA LC9 Series enterprise SSD lineup with the introduction of the industry’s first 245.76 terabyte (TB) NVMe™ SSD. This groundbreaking storage solution is available in both 2.5-inch and Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E3.L form factors, complementing the previously released 122.88 TB (2.5-inch) model. The new SSD is purpose-built to address the rigorous performance and efficiency requirements of generative AI environments.
Generative AI workloads, including the training of large language models (LLMs), creation of embeddings, and vector databases supporting inference through retrieval augmented generation (RAG), necessitate storage solutions with immense capacity, high speed, and exceptional power efficiency. The KIOXIA LC9 Series SSDs are designed to fulfill these critical needs.
At the core of this innovation is a 32-die stack of 2 terabit (Tb) BiCS FLASH™ QLC 3D flash memory, integrated with KIOXIA’s innovative CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) technology. This advanced memory architecture and CBA combination enables an impressive 8 TB per small 154 BGA package, marking another industry first for KIOXIA. This achievement is attributed to KIOXIA’s advancements in high-precision wafer processing, material design, and wire bonding technologies.
The LC9 Series SSDs are particularly well-suited for data lakes, where the ingestion and rapid processing of massive datasets are paramount. Unlike traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), which often create performance bottlenecks and lead to underutilized GPUs, the KIOXIA LC9 Series SSDs facilitate dense storage within a compact footprint. By offering up to 245.76 TB per drive, a single SSD can replace numerous power-hungry HDDs, resulting in superior performance, significantly lower overall power consumption, reduced drive slot usage, and more efficient cooling. These benefits collectively contribute to substantial improvements in total cost of ownership (TCO) across power, density, and thermal management.
Key features of the KIOXIA LC9 Series SSDs include capacities up to 245.76 TB in 2.5-inch and E3.L form factors, and up to 122.88 TB in E3.S form factors. They are designed to PCIe® 5.0 specifications (max. 128 GT/s Gen5 single x4, dual x2), and comply with NVMe™ 2.0 and NVMe-MI™ 1.2c specifications. The drives also support Open Compute Project (OCP) Datacenter NVMe™ SSD specification v2.5 (not all requirements) and Flexible Data Placement (FDP) to minimize write amplification and extend SSD lifespan. For security, options include SIE, SED, and FIPS SED, with the adoption of the CNSA 2.0 signing algorithm, designed with future quantum security standards in mind. Performance is described as up to 12GB/s read and 3GB/s write with up to 1.3 million IOPS read.
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KIOXIA LC9 Series SSDs are currently sampling to select customers and are slated to be showcased at the Future of Memory and Storage 2025 conference, scheduled for August 5–7 in Santa Clara.
