The GP1 targets HBM shortages with direct GPU access and 10 million random read IOPS, while XL1 CXL memory expansion samples are due in August.
Kioxia introduced the KIOXIA GP1 series on August 4 at the FMS: The Future of Memory and Storage conference in the United States, pitching the ultra-fast SSD as a cheaper way to expand AI memory capacity amid soaring HBM costs and supply constraints. The company said the drive supports direct GPU access and fine-grained 512-byte data reads, using its 2nd Generation KIOXIA XL-FLASH Memory and a PCIe 6.0 interface to reach 10 million random read IOPS, with a roadmap toward 100 million IOPS. Kioxia said the product is designed to help data centers add high-capacity, high-speed memory without relying solely on more HBM, which has become scarce and expensive as AI demand has surged. The GP1 will come in E3.S and E1.S form factors, with the 9.5mm model supporting both liquid and air cooling, and has endurance rated at 50 drive writes per day. At the same conference, Kioxia is also showing the KIOXIA XL1 CXL-compatible memory expansion module, which uses flash memory to offload less frequently accessed data from DRAM and is scheduled to begin shipping evaluation samples to industry partners in August. Together, the two products are aimed at easing the performance and cost gap between DRAM and traditional SSDs and improving GPU utilization in AI workloads such as large language model inference and training.