Micron rolls out 276-layer SSD trio for speed, scale, and stability

Summary

Micron has announced three different SSDs aimed at three different markets. The 9650 is a PCIe Gen 6 SSD using TLC (3 bits/cell) flash and built for speed. The 6600 ION is a high-capacity – 122.88 TB – PCIe Gen 5 drive using slower QLC (4 bits/cell) flash. The third drive, the 7600, is another PCIe Gen 5 TLC product designed for consistent low latency in the 1.6-15.36 TB capacity area. All three use its latest Gen 9 276-layer 3D NAND and have Micron’s own DRAM, NAND, controller, and firmware. 9650 This is a PCIe Gen 6 drive, in TLC format using 276-layer Gen 9 Micron NAND, and consequently a fast performer, PCIe 6 being twice the speed of the PCIe 5 interconnect. It comes in a read-optimized – 9650 Pro – or mixed-use variant – 9650 Max – and the performance varies between them: The headline numbers are 5.5 million/900,000 random read/write IOPS, 28 GBps sequential read and 14 GBps sequential write bandwidth, with Micron saying these speeds can dramatically accelerate AI training and inference. The capacity range is 6.4 TB up to 25.6 TB in E3.S format with the 9650 Max, and 7.68 TB to 30.72 TB in either E1.S or E3.S formats with the 9650 Pro. This also has an E1.S liquid cooling option for the 7.68 and 15.36 TB versions, suggesting they run hot. Parallel IO operations are helped by the 9650 having a six-plane architecture. The prior Micron 9550 is a PCIe Gen5 SSD built with its earlier Gen 8 232-layer NAND. It delivered up to 3.3 million/900,000 random read/write IOPS and 14/10 GBps sequential read/write bandwidth – substantially slower than the 9650. The 9650 also delivers more MB/watt, being 1.2 to 2x more efficient than the 9550. The 9650 has lots of security and other certifications: FIPS 140-3 Level 2 and Trade Agreements Act (TAA) compliant options, SPDM 1.2 device security, self-encrypting drive (SED) options, Micron Secure Execution Environment (SEE), FIPS 140-3 Level 2, and TAA compliant options, OCP 2.6. 6600 ION The 6600 ION succeeds the 6550 ION both in E...