HDDs have long been relegated to being a mass data storage solution. These storage units have been replaced by SSDs, which are faster, more efficient and resistant to shocks. Well, Kioxia is developing a new type of SSD that works by optical fiber and that can be at 40 meters from the processor.
You probably have a fibre optic internet connection at home. This type of connection has replaced the traditional system such as ADSL, which offered low connection speeds and, above all, varied depending on the load in the area.
Optical fiber, explained in a simple way, is based on cables that have small crystals inside. In these systems, information is not sent by electrical pulses, but by laser pulses. It allows information to travel at higher speeds and can carry more encoded information.
Kioxia has an SSD that works with fiber optics
Currently, we have solid state drives that work via SATA and PCIe interfaces. Kioxia is apparently working on a new type of drives that work via optical fiber.
Manufacturer Kioxia has stressed that this new type of SSD is aimed at next-generation data centers, which will be more environmentally friendly. They emphasize that fiber optics and laser pulses will be used instead of conventional copper cables and electronic signals.
They have highlighted that these new storage units allow for a huge increase in bandwidth and a reduction in latency. In addition, they reduce the failure rate and energy consumption. As if that were not enough, these SSDs no longer necessarily have to be next to the processor; they can be up to 40 metres away.
Kioxia says that these fiber SSDs, at this distance, do not lose performance or availability. The CPU can continue to access this storage unit as if it were physically on the motherboard next to it, without the need for additional software or hardware.
It is noted that compared to current interfaces, optical SSDs have better integrity and do not suffer from electromagnetic interference problems. In addition, the connection interface of these optical SSDs can be smaller than current ones.
This mechanism allows storage units to be installed in independent racks. They can even be in separate rooms with their own cooling solutions.
Another interesting feature of these elements is that optical SSDs can be interconnected using optical switches. This allows for the creation of a very large-scale storage array. This is perfect for Data Centers, especially those focused on artificial intelligence.
Kioxia has not yet revealed any details or images of these units. We do not know what they will look like physically, nor what type of connector they will use. They have simply given us some details of this type of technology that they are currently working on.
It is worth noting that the PCIe interface already takes into account the introduction of optical connections. Moreover, the PCIe 7.0 version should offer the ability to generate such connections. Cadence recently demonstrated the first PCIe 7.0-based storage solution with optical fiber connection.