Kioxia revisits SLC flash to power FL6 and rival Optane

Stable-point out storage maker Kioxia has introduced the FL6 BiCS4 XL-Flash, which works by using single level cell (SLC) NAND flash to give general performance and endurance for applications these as storage-class memory and to rival Intel’s Optane products.

Kioxia’s FL6 BiCS4 XL-Flash provides a claimed browse throughput of 6.2GBps and 5.8GBps on writes, with 1.5 million read IOPS and .4 million on writes. Latency is in the lower tens of microseconds for reads and writes.

That is close to Intel’s Optane P5800X, which reads facts at 7.2GBps, with 1.5 million enter/output operations for every 2nd (IOPS) and 6 microseconds of latency, and with produce throughput of 6.5GBps.

Presumably, the Kioxia product or service aims at getting aggressive on price tag. The enterprise hasn’t revealed the price tag of the FL6, but it would be protected to suppose it will be more cost-effective – with its use of commodity flash storage – than Optane’s 3D Xpoint.

FL6 and Optane connect by means of PCIe 4. and operate two channels. Intel programs to announce the P5801X, which will be a tiny a lot quicker, with throughput of 7.4GBps for reads and writes.

Kioxia’s FL6 is centered on its so-called XL-Flash, which is developed on SLC NAND flash. SLC was the initially generation of NAND flash to hit the current market before becoming outmoded for standard storage use by MLC, TLC, QLC, and so on.

With only 1 demand for every cell, SLC is the most quick of the NAND flash generations and has the longest lifespan, but also provides the least in phrases of ability, with 96 layers of cells accessible by using 16 parallel buses in the case of the FL6 chip.

Use of SLC limits capability, but which is not the vital intention in this article – overall performance is the main necessity. FL6 items will be readily available initially in 800GB, 1.6TB and 3.2TB capacities, which are the exact as these offered in the P5800X family from Intel.

What SLC does present to the FL6 is prolonged endurance, with a promise of five years, which compares to about a year of life from common QLC SSDs.

Also making use of SLC is the Samsung-produced Z-SSD, which is little-improved given that its launch in 2019. With 48 levels of SLC, the Samsung SZ985 provides a lot lessen performance than the Kioxia FL6, namely 3.4GBps throughput for reads and 3GBps for writes, with .75 million examine IOPS and .17 million in the course of writes.

Samsung’s Z-SSD connects by way of PCIe 3., which is 2x considerably less speedy, and via four channels that make it possible for for read latency of 20 microseconds in reads and 16 microseconds for writes.

A year back, Kioxia launched an solid-condition generate (SSD) with similar throughput, the CM6, which has 96 levels of TLC flash. Use of TLC flash confined stamina and its use in compose-intensive environments, such as with databases, and left the field open to Optane.

In accordance to analysts TrendForce, Kioxia ranks next amid world-wide SSD makers with 18.3% of the current market, driving Samsung (34% current market share). Kioxia, nevertheless, is a goal for takeover by Western Digital (14.7% marketplace share), which designs to commit $20bn in product advancement and to get the position of Samsung.

For its component, Intel (6.7% industry share) is established to redouble its efforts on the Optane entrance, primarily based on a shift to 3D Xpoint and absent from NAND flash action, which Intel marketed to SK Hynix (12.3% market share).