At FMS 2023, Kioxia showed off a large portfolio of devices. We got to see the company’s new CXL + BiCS Flash drive and also got an answer regarding drive naming in the CD8/CD8P series of NVMe SSDs.
Kioxia CXL and BiCS Flash SSD Shown at FMS 2023
At the show, we found this diagram showing two different Kioxia CXL lines. One was a CXL + BiCS Flash and one was a CXL + XL-Flash (Kioxia’s SLC NAND SLC solution.)
The specs were interesting since this is one of the first CXL x4 devices we have seen. It also says it is using CXL.mem for read and CXL.io for write.
That placard was inside a closed case with the actual device.
Of course, we liberated it briefly to show STH readers.
Here is the controller side of the drive without its casing.
Here is the backside of the drive.
Our boss took an obligatory selfie with the drive.
So far most of the CXL devices we have seen are Type-3 memory expansion devices. It was great to see some NAND on CXL applications.
If you want to learn more about CXL (and we will be updating this soon) you can check out our CXL video.
Kioxia CD8 versus CD8P SSD
Also at the show, our STH team saw the Kioxia CD8 and CD8P NVMe SSDs.
The Kioxia CD8 has been out for some time. We asked what the difference was between the CD8 and CD8P. When the CD8 was originally launched it was spec’d as a PCIe Gen5 drive. Since Gen5 platforms were delayed, it became a Gen4 drive.
Then for the show, we got the Kioxia CD8P version. That is actually the PCIe Gen5 part.
We asked and the “P” is for prime.
You may wonder why both are 8. That is not the PCIe generation. Instead, it is tied to the NAND generation.
For example, there is also the Kioxia CM7 that you may have seen recently on STH. That is also a PCIe Gen5 drive even though it is a “7”.
That was something we did not know.
Honorable Mentions FL6
We also saw a few drives we have not seen in a while including the Kioxia FL6. That uses XL-FLASH like the 100DWPD DapuStor Xlenstor2 X2900P we just reviewed.
We also saw the Kioxia PM7.
This is a 24G SAS4 SSD.
SAS4 is still around for large storage arrays.
Final Words
Overall it was fun seeing new devices and seeing how the Kioxia CD8(P) line evolved over time. Seeing the CXL device was something very different than we have seen from companies like Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron since it used XL-FLASH for SCM and NAND for capacity. The fact that there was a working sample was very cool as well.
