Micron still holds the lead in the newer E3.S form factor, but for U.2 drives and soon the slender E1.L form factor, it seems like Solidigm now has the biggest SSD around. This isn’t exactly an entirely new SSD; the D5-P5336 has been around, but before it topped out at “only” 61.44TB. The new 122.88TB capacity carries forward all of the features of the previous models, including PCIe 4.0, NVMe 2.0, and low idle power of under 5W.
Of course, as a PCIe 4.0 drive, it also doesn’t manage to top Micron’s new baby in terms of raw speed, but that doesn’t mean it’s slow. Solidigm quotes sequential read speeds up to 7400 MB/s, while random reads top out at 930,000 IOPS—both similar performance specs to much smaller enthusiast-oriented M.2 SSDs, which typically offer higher performance at lower capacities.
Solidigm also says that the drive is ludicrously durable, offering 134.3 PBW endurance. The company offers this helpful image below to illustrate what that means:
If you’re confused, it means that you could operate one of these drives at its full speed doing 32KB random writes for five continuous years and still have 5% of the drive’s life remaining. Of course, sequential writes will wear it out faster, since they are faster, but this is still a very impressive metric.
Solidigm says that the new SSDs are currently sampling to customers in U.2 form, and will be available in Q1 of next year, while the E1.L 9.5mm format will start sampling early next year and be available in Q2. As usual, no word on pricing, but just like with yesterday’s drives, they’re sure to be in “if you have to ask” territory.