Micron 9650 SSD unveiled: world's first Gen6 SSD with up to 28GB/sec read speeds

Micron has just unveiled the world's first Gen6 SSD with the introduction of its new Micron 9650 Gen6 SSD, capable of up to 28GB/sec reads for next-gen Gen6-ready data centers.

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The new Micron 9650 Gen6 SSD features its in-house G9 NAND flash, aimed at high performance and low latencies for data center servers. Micron's new family of three SSDs uses vertical integration and its in-house G9 NAND, DRAM, and firmware to ensure that its new SSDs pack leading performance for servers, high capacity, high speeds, lower latencies, all while consuming less power.

Micron's new 9650 Gen6 SSD has up to 28GB/sec of sequential read speeds -- twice that of the 14GB/sec capable in Gen5 SSDs -- and up to 14GB/sec in sequential writes. This means that Micron's new 9650 Gen6 SSD has the fastest speeds out of the box, but does it with 25% improved efficiency at random writes, and up to 67% better efficiency at random reads.

• Read more: PCIe Gen6 at Computex 2025, ready for next-gen Gen6 SSDs pushing 32GB/sec
• Read more: Silicon Motion intros Gen6 SSD controller: up to 28 GB/s speeds, 512TB capacity
• Read more: Gen5 SSDs to stay on the market until 2030, Gen6 SSDs aren't ready for mainstream

Next up we've got another enterprise SSD with Micron's new 6600 ION which offers a huge 122TB of capacity and uses the new E3.S interface. The E3.S interface usually taps out at 15.36TB of capacity, but the new 122TB capacity inside of the 6600 ION means that it competes with the E3.L form factor data center SSDs, all inside of a smaller footprint.

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Micron's new 6600 ION can reach 2.4PB (petabytes) of storage inside of a 1U server, achieved by using 36 of the new Micron 6600 ION SSDs you can reach 4.42PB of storage per 2U server. Micron has massively improved the efficiency of its 6600 ION, consuming only 1W of power per 4.9TB of capacity, making it 37% better in energy efficiency compared to a 3 x 36TB HDD configuration.

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Lastly, we've got the Micron 7600 SSD which is a new Gen5 SSD solution with ultra-low latency at sub-1ms, making it the fastest data center drive in Gen5 speeds. We've got quick responses with competitive read/write speeds, making the 7600 SSD perfect for those who want the best in AI inference and mixed workloads, available in different form factors including E3.S, U.2, and E1.S.

Micron is already shipping its new 9650 Gen6 and 7600 Gen5 SSDs to customers already, with the new 122TB 6600 ION to begin shipping in E3.S and U.2 form factors in Q3 2026. There'll also be a bigger 245TB version of the 6600 ION SSD ready to deploy in 2026.

Jeremy Werner, senior vice president and general manager of Micron's Core Data Center Business Unit explains: "With the industry's first PCIe Gen6 SSD, industry-leading capacities and the lowest latency mainstream SSD-all powered by our first-to-market G9 NAND-Micron is not just setting the pace; we are redefining the frontier of data center innovation. This launch cements our leadership in data center SSDs and signals a new era of performance, density and efficiency for our customers".

Arunkumar Narayanan, senior vice president of Compute and Networking, Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) at Dell Technologies adds: "With up to 5.5 million IOPS for random reads, the Micron 9650 is purpose-built for AI pipelines' high-throughput, low-latency demands. This product helps ensure GPUs remain continuously fed with data, minimizing idle cycles and maximizing system efficiency. Combined with Dell's advanced server architecture, this innovation empowers enterprises to unlock new levels of performance and insight".

Kevin Deierling, senior vice president of Networking at NVIDIA said: "Advanced AI reasoning workloads require agents to swiftly access massive volumes of business and internet data. PCIe Gen6 SSDs like the Micron 9650 provide high-speed data access to support accelerated computing performance and efficiency for AI inference and training".