Kioxia Corporation, AIO Core Co., Ltd., and Kyocera Corporation Announce Development of Prototype Broadband Optical SSD

Kioxia Corporation, AIO Core Co., Ltd., and Kyocera Corporation have revealed the creation of a prototype broadband SSD with an optical interface that is compatible with PCIe 5.0. This development aims to enhance the capabilities of broadband optical SSDs for advanced applications like generative AI that require high-speed data transfer. The companies will also conduct proof-of-concept tests for potential future implementation in society.

The new prototype successfully operates with the high-speed PCIe 5.0 interface, which offers double the bandwidth of the previous PCIe 4.0 generation. This achievement was made possible through the collaboration of AIO Core's IOCore optical transceiver and Kyocera's OPTINITY optoelectronic integration module technologies. By utilizing broadband optical SSD technology in next-generation green data centers, the physical distance between compute and storage devices can be increased significantly while maintaining energy efficiency and signal quality. This advancement also enhances the flexibility and efficiency of data center system design, particularly in environments where complex, high-volume, high-speed data processing is required due to digital diversification and the evolution of generative AI.

This milestone is part of the "Next Generation Green Data Center Technology Development" project JPNP21029 in Japan, which is supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) under the "Green Innovation Fund Project: Construction of Next Generation Digital Infrastructure." The project aims to develop technologies that can achieve more than 40% energy savings compared to current data centers. As part of this initiative, Kioxia is working on broadband optical SSDs, AIO Core is focusing on optoelectronic fusion devices, and Kyocera is dedicated to developing optoelectronic device packages.