Kioxia E1.S SSDs Launch to Power High-Density AI Data Center Workloads
Memory manufacturer KIOXIA America introduces its next-generation Kioxia E1.S SSDs featuring direct liquid cooling support for high-performance AI servers.
News About Kioxia E1.S SSDs
KIOXIA America, Inc. introduced the KIOXIA NX1 Series, a new family of Kioxia E1.S SSDs engineered for hyperscale data centers and GPU-accelerated server architectures. Serving as the successor to the company’s XD Series, the NX1 lineup is Kioxia’s first SSD family to offer direct liquid cooling support alongside traditional air cooling configurations.
Built on Kioxia’s proprietary next-generation controller architecture and BiCS FLASH™ generation 8 3D TLC memory, the drive utilizes CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) technology. Compared to the prior XD8 generation, the NX1 Series delivers up to a 38% improvement in sequential write speeds and up to 20% higher random write performance. The drives are available in E1.S 9.5 mm (supporting both direct liquid and air cooling) and 15 mm form factors (supporting air cooling), with capacities ranging from 1.92 TB to 15.36 TB.
The drives comply with PCIe 5.0, NVMe 2.0, and Open Compute Project (OCP) Datacenter NVMe SSD 2.6 specifications, while featuring NVMe Flexible Data Placement (FDP) support. Kioxia is currently sampling the NX1 Series to select hyperscale customers and plans to showcase the technology at FMS: the Future of Memory and Storage in Santa Clara, California.
Significance of Kioxia E1.S SSDs
The release of the Kioxia E1.S SSDs is significant because modern artificial intelligence training and inference workloads require flash storage to operate in extremely close physical proximity to high-power CPUs and GPUs. The Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E1.S design allows server architects to maximize drive density per rack unit without creating thermal bottlenecks.
Introducing direct liquid cooling compatibility to the 9.5 mm form factor helps data center operators manage the intense heat generated by accelerator-dense AI servers. Cold-plate liquid cooling allows hyperscalers to run high-speed PCIe 5.0 storage at full performance without thermal throttling, optimizing total cost of ownership (TCO) and energy efficiency.
Furthermore, support for NVMe Flexible Data Placement (FDP) helps cloud providers minimize write amplification and extend drive longevity under heavy write-intensive workloads. Combining high-capacity 15.36 TB storage, robust OCP compliance, and advanced encryption options ensures that next-generation enterprise data centers can scale storage bandwidth alongside rising AI compute demands.
Next Steps for Kioxia E1.S SSDs
Following early customer sampling, KIOXIA America will conduct live hardware demonstrations of these Kioxia E1.S SSDs at the Future of Memory and Storage exhibition from August 4 to 6, 2026. Technical engineering teams will work directly with cloud service providers and server original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to validate liquid cooling integration across custom rack designs.
As AI server deployments accelerate globally, Kioxia plans to ramp volume production across its BiCS FLASH™ generation 8 manufacturing lines. The company will continue expanding its EDSFF storage portfolio to support evolving data center thermal standards and high-density storage platforms.
