KIOXIA Debuts 122.88TB LC9 NVMe SSD to Power Scalable AI Workloads

KIOXIA America, Inc. has announced the development of its groundbreaking LC9 Series 122.88 terabyte (TB) NVMe™ SSD in a 2.5-inch form factor, becoming the first to integrate the company’s advanced BiCS FLASH™ generation 8 QLC 3D flash memory featuring a 2 terabit (Tb) die.

As the demand for AI technologies continues to expand, enterprises face increasing storage needs to support massive datasets, large language models (LLMs), vector databases, and AI inference. The LC9 Series SSD is purpose-built for such requirements, offering a PCIe® 5.0 interface and dual-port architecture to support fault tolerance and multi-system connectivity, making it ideal for hybrid and multi-cloud AI environments.

This new drive aligns with KIOXIA’s vision for AI-optimized infrastructure and complements its recently introduced AiSAQ™ technology. AiSAQ allows scalable Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) performance by storing vector data on SSDs instead of relying on expensive DRAM, boosting rack-level efficiency and reducing power per TB.

According to Gregory Wong, founder and principal analyst at Forward Insights, “As AI adoption accelerates and larger LLMs and vector databases become more prevalent, the need for high-capacity SSD storage is surging. Advanced storage solutions such as KIOXIA’s LC9 Series 122.88 TB SSD will be critical in supporting the growing computational needs of AI models, enabling greater efficiency and innovation.”

KIOXIA LC9 Series SSD Key Features:

  • Dual-port 2.5-inch enterprise SSD, 122.88 TB capacity, 0.3 DWPD endurance
  • Compliant with NVMe 2.0, NVMe-MI™, and PCIe® 5.0 specifications
  • Delivers up to 128 GT/s Gen5 1x4 or 2x2 performance
  • Powered by KIOXIA’s 2 Tb QLC BiCS FLASH™ generation 8 with CMOS Bonded to Array (CBA) technology

“AI workloads are pushing the boundaries of data storage, demanding higher capacities and faster access to vast datasets that reside in today’s data lakes,” said Neville Ichhaporia, senior vice president and general manager of the SSD business unit at KIOXIA America, Inc. “The new LC9 Series NVMe SSD from KIOXIA can accelerate AI model training, inference, and RAG at scale.”