Toshiba Readies Blazing Fast SAS And NVMe Enterprise SSDs with 64-Layer 3D Flash Memory

Toshiba has been busy updating its solid state drive portfolio this summer, and it is leaving no market untouched. The company's latest product announcement is a pair of speedy enterprise SSDs. They are the first enterprise-class SSDs to be built around the company's latest 64 layer, 3-bit-per-cell TLC (triple-level cell) NAND BiCS flash memory, making it possible for customers to expand the use of flash with cost-optimized solutions.

The first of the new drives is the TMC PM5 series. It offers up to a whopping 30.72 terabytes of capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor, with transfer speeds rated to hit up to 3,350 MB/s (reads) by way of support for four-port SAS MultiLink. These drives can also write data at speeds of up to 2,720 MB/s in MultiLink mode, along with up to 400,000 random read IOPS in narrow or MultiLink modes.


MultiLink SAS is a sort of carryover technology from when SAS drives were limited to a 6Gbps interface. However, it became largely overlooked with the advent of 12Gbps SAS for clients seeking higher throughput solutions. But rather than leave it behind, Toshiba sees MultiLink SAS as a way to achieve performance to today's PCIe-based SSDs, thereby enabling legacy infrastructures to speed up operations without having to re-architect from the ground up. PM5 SSDs also support multi-stream write technology to intelligently manage and group data types to minimize write amplification and garbage collection.

In addition to its PM5 series, Toshiba also announced its next-generation NVMe SSD, the CM5. Capacity tops out at 15.36TB, though it offers better performance than the PM5 series with up to 800,000 random read and 240,000 random write IOPS.

"We are proud to be first to market with new enterprise flash innovations to further broaden our enterprise SSD portfolio and re-writing the rules for enterprise SSDs using 3D TLC FLASH," said Steve Fingerhut, senior vice president and general manager of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., SSD business unit. "Toshiba’s customers demand more out of storage and Toshiba delivers enterprise solutions that fit application needs."

The PM5 SAS SSD line will ship in capacities from 800GB to 30.72TB, while the CM5 NVMe SSDs will come in capacities from 400GB to 15.36TB. Toshiba said it hopes to complete development of both drives by the fourth quarter.