Next-gen NVMeTM SSD form factor for cloud data centres

2nd July 2020

KIOXIA Europe

Lanna Deamer

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KIOXIA Europe has developed and started shipment of engineering samples of next-generation Enterprise & Datacentre SSD Form Factor (EDSFF) E3.S, and which is being standardised by the SNIA SFF TA Technical Work Group. E3.S is a new form factor standard for NVMe SSDs in cloud and enterprise data centres, especially targeting PCIe 5.0 and beyond.

The E3.S will contribute to the design and development of next-generation systems, such as cloud, hyper-converged and general-purpose servers and All-Flash Array (AFA) systems in cloud and enterprise data centres. The E3.S specification allows for size, power and capacity options, all with a common connector.

Designed for future PCIe generations that offer higher power budgets, EDSFF E3.S delivers improved performance, cooling and flexibility over other form factors. KIOXIA’s E3.S engineering samples, based on KIOXIA’s CM6 Series PCIe 4.0 NVMe 1.4 SSD in a 2.5" form factor, demonstrated approximately 35% greater performance with the same controller and BiCS FLASH 3D TLC flash memory in the EDSFF E3.S form factor with x4 lanes and 28W (+40%) of power.

EDSFF E3.S benefits include:

Higher density of flash storage for more efficient use of power, storage footprint and system rack deployments
Supports PCIe 5.0 and beyond through improved signal integrity
Better cooling and thermal characteristics
Performance and benefits beyond the 2.5" form factor version
Drive status can be shown by LED indicators
Supports x8 PCIe lane configurations