Consumer and enterprise SSD manufacturer Kioxia has confirmed it has completed development of its next-generation PCIe 5.0 SSDs utilizing optical technology. In a news post, Kioxia claims AIOcore, Kyocera, and itself are working to improve compatibility of its new optical SSDs with (server) platforms that take advantage of generative AI and other highly-intensive data crunching workloads.
The new drive's development consisted of a prototype PCIe 4.0 Kioxia SSD featuring IOCore's Optinity optical and electrical integrated module. The optical system was allegedly tested and confirmed to work at PCIe Gen 5 speeds, enabling the "PCIe 4.0" prototype drive to operate at 5.0 speeds.
Kioxia's optical SSD project was started by JPNP21029, a project allegedly subsidized by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization). The project aims to develop next-generation technologies that can save 40% or more on energy compared to existing data centers. Next-generation "green" data centers are allegedly being built with optical SSDs in mind.
Optical technology has become an essential element for improving the performance and flexibility of next-generation SSDs. Kioxia has already confirmed that optical communication will enable substantially longer distances between an SSD or SSD cluster and its host machine: up to 40 meters away from the CPU. That means high-speed PCIe 5.0 SSD clusters can be installed in an entirely separate room from their host system while retaining their full performance.
Additionally, optical technology requires substantially less cooling to function and doesn't require as large a connector as outgoing electrical-wiring-based designs. This will enable future optical-based SSDs to have a smaller form factor than conventional drives.
Performance-wise, it appears the industry is nowhere near the limit of optical communication. Cadence has already demonstrated PCIe 7.0 speeds (128 GT/s) working in an optical form factor.
Kioxia did not specify a release date for its upcoming optical-based PCIe 5.0 SSDs. It appears the main bottleneck currently is getting next-gen data center hardware to support optical storage devices. Once industry compatibility is ready for optical hardware, we can expect Kioxia to start shipping enterprise-class optical SSDs to the market.
