Kioxia Targets AI Infrastructure With Flash Drive Delivering 20 Million Random-Read IOPS
Kioxia’s latest flash storage unit doubles the speed of its predecessor, targeting AI infrastructure with random-read performance exceeding twenty million operations per second.
Key points
- The new GP drive achieves over 20 million random-read IOPS for 512-byte blocks.
- Third-generation XL-FLASH memory triples read speeds compared to previous models.
- Kioxia aims to compete with DRAM in AI markets using high-performance flash.
System administrators should note that Kioxia has released a new solid-state drive that exceeds twenty million random-read IOPS. According to TechRadar, this updated GP series drive significantly outperforms the GP1 model unveiled in August 2026. The earlier model delivered approximately ten million IOPS, meaning the new version roughly doubles the random-read speed for small data blocks.
In plain English
The performance jump comes from third-generation XL-FLASH memory technology. This new memory type delivers three times the reading speed and roughly 150% higher writing speed than the previous generation. Kioxia designed this hardware to handle the heavy data demands of artificial intelligence workloads. The company states that scalable and efficient storage is becoming the foundation for AI innovation.
The drive uses shorter wiring for word and bit lines to reduce electrical delay. It also includes more planes in each die than the sixteen found in the second generation. These physical changes allow the drive to access data faster. The technology is built to provide finer access to small data blocks while using less power per operation than conventional SSDs.
The background
Kioxia is pursuing a strategy to challenge dynamic random-access memory in AI markets. The goal is to offer flash storage that approaches the speed of memory-class devices. Neville Ichhaporia, senior vice president at Kioxia America, said the company is creating high-performance flash solutions for AI infrastructure. He noted that AI drives new performance demands that require efficient storage foundations.
The first-generation GP1 drive used multi-level cell technology storing two bits per cell. It operated in a faster single-level cell mode and featured a sixteen-plane layout. That drive had a read latency below five microseconds. It was a PCIe 6.0 NVMe 2.2 device designed for GPUs to access storage directly. The endurance rating for that model was up to fifty drives writes per day.
What changes now
Kioxia has not disclosed the endurance rating for the upgraded model. The company also has not confirmed whether the new drive keeps the PCIe 6.0 interface. However, it is likely to follow the technical path of its predecessor. The first GP1 was built for direct GPU access, suggesting the new model targets similar high-performance computing environments.
Kioxia also exhibited the LD4 drive, a quad-level cell device with one port. It stores four bits per cell in E1.L format using a four-lane PCIe 5 link. The drive comes in fifteen-point-three-six terabyte and thirty-point-seven-two terabyte capacities. The design can scale to one-hundred-twenty-two-point-eight-eight terabytes for hyperscalers.
The fifteen-point-three-six terabyte model fills a quarter of the E1.L enclosure. A sixty-one-point-four-four terabyte version would likely occupy three-quarters of the space. The LD4 uses two-hundred-eighteen-layer BiCS 8 flash memory. It appears to succeed the LD2 drive from October 2023, which ran on PCIe 3 with identical capacities.
What to do and how to stay safe: Kioxia
- Monitor vendor announcements for specific endurance ratings and interface details of the new GP drive.
- Evaluate current AI infrastructure storage bottlenecks to see if higher IOPS would improve performance.
- Review compatibility requirements for PCIe 6.0 and NVMe 2.2 standards in existing server hardware.
- Compare power consumption forecasts for the new XL-FLASH technology against current drive deployments.
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Frequently asked questions
How does the new Kioxia drive compare to the GP1?
The new drive exceeds twenty million IOPS, roughly double the ten million IOPS of the GP1 model from August 2026.
What technology enables the speed increase?
Third-generation XL-FLASH memory with shorter wiring and additional planes per die enables the higher performance.
Is the LD4 drive faster than the GP series?
The LD4 is a high-capacity QLC drive using PCIe 5, while the GP series targets high IOPS with PCIe 6.0.
