Kioxia has a new SSD in the Kioxia XG8 M.2 NVMe SSD. This is Kioxia’s 2022 generation PCIe Gen4 product. There are a few new trends with this SSD that seem to align with what we are seeing in the industry.
Kioxia XG8 M.2 NVMe SSD Launched
The Kioxia XG8 is a PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD that is designed for client and data center boot duties. This new generation is a M.2 2280 (80mm) form factor drive. Capacities are 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB. That is actually a unique stat as the lowest capacity option is now 512GB and there are no 128GB/ 256GB options. Over the past few months, we have seen data center drives migrate over 1TB in starting capacity and we are seeing client SSDs now start in the half-terabyte range.
The new drives use Kioxia’s BiCS FLASH 3D and support new features such as the NVMe 1.4 spec, TCG Pyrite 2.01, and TCG Opal 2.01. There is even a SMBus feature to help systems manage thermals better. Although these drives are not listed as having Power Loss Protection (PLP), they now have Power Loss Notification (PLN) that is supposed to help protect data during forced shutdowns.
Final Words
Hopefully, we will get the chance to test this drive in the coming weeks or months. We gave some feedback to Kioxia that we wanted to test the XG7 even though that was intended as an OEM product for client and data center boot SSDs. Keep an eye out for Will’s review of the XG8 on STH.
We know that many will want PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs as Intel Alder Lake platforms support the new PCIe standard and others from AMD and Intel will support PCIe Gen5 later this year. All we can say is that we will see Gen5 NVMe SSDs, but it will likely be more around when platforms are able to properly support them.
