Kioxia unveils GP1 SSD with over 20M IOPS, aiming at DRAM in AI
Kioxia has announced a faster version of its GP-series drive that exceeds 20 million IOPS when reading 512-byte data blocks at random, roughly double the approximately 10 million IOPS of the GP1 unveiled in August 2026. The new model uses third-generation XL-FLASH memory, which the company says delivers three times the read speed and about 150% higher write speed, as part of a plan to offer flash storage approaching memory-class speed and challenge DRAM in AI markets. Kioxia also showed the LD4, a single-port QLC drive in E1.L format with a four-lane PCIe 5 link, offered in 15.36 TB and 30.72 TB capacities, though no speed or endurance figures were released.
If flash can genuinely approach memory-class speed, some AI infrastructure data-supply bottlenecks could shift to the storage layer, though endurance and cost remain unproven.