Kioxia, AIO Core, Kyocera Unveil PCIe 5.0-Compatible Broadband Optical SSD Prototype 

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 (Bernama) -- Kioxia Corporation, AIO Core Co Ltd, and Kyocera Corporation have jointly announced the development of a prototype of a PCIe 5.0-compatible broadband solid-state drive (SSD) with an optical interface (broadband optical SSD).

The companies will develop technologies for broadband optical SSDs to enhance their suitability for advanced applications that require high-speed transfer of large data, such as generative artificial intelligence (AI), and will also apply them to proof-of-concept (PoC) tests for future social implementation.

In a statement, Kioxia said the new prototype achieved functional operation with the high-speed PCIe 5.0 interface, which is twice the bandwidth of the previous PCIe 4.0 generation, through the combination of AIO Core’s IOCore optical transceiver and Kyocera’s OPTINITY optoelectronic integration module technologies.

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This broadband optical SSD technology could play a significant role in green data centres by replacing the electrical wiring with optical interfaces. This shift increases the physical distance between compute and storage devices while maintaining energy efficiency and high signal quality.

Additionally, it allows for greater flexibility and efficiency in data centre system design, where digital diversification and the evolution of generative AI require complex, high-volume, high-speed data processing.

This achievement is the result of the Japanese “Next Generation Green Data Center Technology Development” project JPNP21029, supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) under the “Green Innovation Fund Project: Construction of Next Generation Digital Infrastructure”.

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The goal of the initiative is to reduce energy consumption in data centres by over 40 per cent compared to current standards. As part of this project, Kioxia is focused on developing broadband optical SSDs, AIO Core is advancing optoelectronic fusion devices, and Kyocera is working on optoelectronic device packages.

-- BERNAMA