KIOXIA has announced the GP Series, a new SSD designed for AI systems that would allow GPUs to directly access flash memory as an extension of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. They’ve dubbed this drive a “Super High IOPS SSD” built for AI and high-performance computing workloads. According to Kioxia, the drive is designed to expand the amount of memory accessible to GPUs and improve data access for AI applications.
The announcement is tied to Nvidia’s Storage-Next initiative, which aims to address growing demand for GPU-accessible memory as AI workloads become more data-intensive. In current systems, GPU memory is limited by HBM capacity. Storage-Next is intended to extend usable memory space by allowing GPUs to access flash-based storage more directly.
KIOXIA said the GP Series uses its XL-FLASH storage-class memory and is being designed for GPU-initiated AI workloads. The new drives are intended to deliver lower latency, higher input/output performance, 512-byte data access granularity, and lower power consumption per I/O than its conventional TLC SSDs.
KIOXIA also discussed its previously announced CM9 Series PCIe 5.0 SSDs, including a 25.6TB E3.S configuration aimed at AI inference systems, where larger models and longer context windows are increasing demand for key-value cache capacity. The company said the TLC-based drive, rated for 3 drive writes per day endurance, is designed to support architectures that extend the memory hierarchy beyond GPU memory using high-performance storage, including Nvidia’s Context Memory Storage, or CMX. Samples are expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2026.
KIOXIA GP Series Availability
KIOXIA will demonstrate a Super High IOPS SSD emulator and other technologies at Nvidia GTC at booth 3522. Evaluation samples of the GP Series are expected to be available to select customers by the end of 2026.
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