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KIOXIA has partnered with a leading server original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to successfully demonstrate an E3.S full-function development vehicle of the new EDSFF (Enterprise and Data Center Form Factor). This breakthrough new form factor, also called E3, enables maximum system density, simplicity and efficiency.
KIOXIA is an active member of the SNIA SFF-TA-1008 technical work group, which has been instrumental in creating the new EDSFF E3.Short (E3.S) and E3.Long (E3.L) solutions, which are expected to be the future of SSD storage for All Flash Arrays (AFAs) and servers in enterprise data centers and cloud applications. Utilizing one common connector, this new form factor for PCIe-based devices, including NVMe SSDs, graphics processing units (GPUs) and network interface cards (NICs), provides a complete selection of capacity, power and footprint choices, enabling unprecedented system design flexibility.
These EDSFF E.3x drives go beyond the design limitations of the 2.5″ form factor by supporting better signal integrity and higher power requirements (up to 40W), and maximize the performance capabilities expected with PCIe Gen 5.0 and beyond to enable future generations of storage and server systems. These future-forward SSD device designs also offer improved thermal characteristics that address the cooling concerns that have historically come with such game-changing performance.
According to Shigenori Yanagi, SSD Technology Executive for KIOXIA, “We are excited to work with the leading server and storage system developers to bring new classes of systems to market that will be able to fully unleash the power of flash memory, NVMe and PCIe. EDSFF E.3S will power the future generations of servers and storage, making the data center even more efficient.”
The EDSFF full-function development vehicle created by KIOXIA is based on the E.3S thin (7.5mm) form factor and offers increased flash density per drive for optimizing rack consolidation and power efficiency. These drives feature the same core components as KIOXIA’s recently-announced CM6 Series of PCIe 4.0 NVMe 1.4 SSDs, and are configured with x8 PCIe lanes and up to 28W of power. KIOXIA will also be supporting additional size/width options, such as E3.S thick (16.8mm) and E.3L thin.
For additional information, you can view the entire KIOXIA press release here.