KIOXIA has announced the newest addition to its portfolio of PCIe Gen4 SSDs, the KIOXIA BG5 Series, designed for mainstream PC users. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a client-grade SSD released from the company, so this is something we are certainly looking forward to testing. Nonetheless, the new line focuses on a balance of performance, cost, and power, and features the PCIe 64 GT/s interface (Gen4 x4 lanes) combined with the company’s fifth-generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology. The BG6 SSDs are available in capacities of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
The KIOXIA BG5 Series is a virtual multi-LUN (VML)-enabled client SSD, which means users will have access to the back-end flash performance while still being affordable. This makes it a viable option for a wide range of commercial and consumer notebooks and desktops.
The KIOXIA BG5 is a DRAMless SSD. Though this type of drive often produces slower performance compared to those who have DRAM, it is usually fine for consumers looking to buy a cost-effective drive and those who really aren’t looking for a solution with the best possible performance.
That said, it still comes with quoted speeds up to 3.5GB/s read and throughput of 500K IOPS. This is achieved by leveraging the latest Host Memory Buffer (HMB), a technology that links the SSD directly to the host processor’s DRAM. Combining this with the company’s 5th-generation V-NAND hopefully means we will see some solid performance for a client-side drive.
The KIOXIA BG5 Series features the compact M.2 form factor and is available in both single-sided 2230 and 2280 sizes.
Key features include:
- Up to 3,500 MB/s sequential read and 2,900 MB/s sequential write
- Up to 500,000 IOPS random read and 450,000 IOPS random write
- Support for the latest TCG Pyrite and Opal standards, as well as End-to-End Data Protection ensures data is secure whether at home or in the office.
- Forward-looking support for the NVMe 1.4 feature set and basic management command over System Management Bus (SMBus)
- Power Loss Notification signal support to protect data against forced shutdowns
Availability
The KIOXIA BG5 Series is now sampling to industry partners and customers.
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