With Kioxia’s CM7 series, however, this value only applies to reading and so far only in the case of the E3.S version for the Enterprise & Datacenter SSD Form Factor (EDSFF). Such E3.S SSDs are slightly larger than 2.5-inch models and use a PCIe connector, which allows them to be plugged vertically and wirelessly into suitable bays – typically in U2 cases.
The E3.S standard is server exclusive. AMD’s upcoming Epyc processors 9004 (Genoa, Zen 4) and Intel’s fourth Xeon SP generation Sapphire Rapids dominate PCIe 5.0. At Kioxia, SSDs in M.2 format for desktop PCs and notebooks usually follow after the market launch of the server models.
U.3 only with PCIe 4.0
The U.3 version of the CM7 in the 2.5-inch housing is meanwhile limited to PCIe 4.0 and thus the halved transfer rate. The ecosystem is probably not yet prepared for the higher requirements of PCIe 5.0, so the controller switches back to 4.0 mode.
Kioxia sells the E3.S version with capacities of up to 12.8 TB as the CM7-V for write- and read-intensive applications. The warranty covers three complete drive descriptions per day (3 DWPD). The U.3 variant for use as a purely read-intensive drive comes as the CM7-R with a capacity of up to 30.72 TB. Kioxia’s warranty covers one drive description per day (1 DWPD).
The manufacturer has not yet commented on the other specifications, such as the write speed and the IOPS.
