KIOXIA is developing Optical SSDs for the next-generation of green data centers and outer space

KIOXIA is attending the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) conference in Santa Clara, California. The creator of flash memory and the innovative BiCS FLASH 3D technology is showcasing a new prototype broadband SSD with an optical interface designed for the next generation of data centers.

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Replacing electrical wiring with an optical interface allows KIOXIA to create a greater distance between the compute and storage devices, paving the way for more flexible designs without sacrificing efficiency or signal quality.

In fact, an optical interface makes it possible to aggregate components like an SSD and CPU that can "efficiently utilize resources according to a specific workload" by placing them in different rooms or locations separated by up to 40 meters of optical fiber (up to 100 meters in the future). In a data center, optical SSD storage could be located in one room with fewer cooling requirements, lowering the energy footprint.

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It's an impressive achievement that could impact the future of high-performance compute (HPC) environments, not to mention outer space. KIOXIA has a history in this department; after all, the company has been sending SSDs into orbit for some time now. It could also be a game changer for AI, where "disaggregation" will become an architectural option for system designers.

This new endeavor arrives via the Japanese Next Generation Green Data Center Technology Development Project under the Green Innovation Fund Project: Construction of Next-Generation Digital Infrastructure. The overall goal is to decrease the energy currently used by data centers by more than 40%. KIOXIA's broadband SSDs with optical interfaces are set to deliver exactly that for storage in the next generation of green data centers.

Other companies included in the initiative are Fujitsu Limited, NEC Corporation, AIO Core, and Kyocera. According to KIOXIA, we might start seeing these Optical SSDs with the arrival of PCIe Gen6.