Podcast #138: Solidigm Liquid-Cooled SSDs

Brian invited Cody Noland, Solidigm’s Sr Thermal Mechanical Engineer, to the show to discuss the latest in liquid-cooled SSDs. The Solidigm liquid-cooled D7-PS1010 E1.S, the industry’s first cold-plate-cooled SSD. The drive was introduced during GTC 2025 and garnered massive attention during the event and after. Solidigm’s proprietary E1.S SSD case design efficiently channels heat from the non-contact side through the case to the side that interfaces with the cold plate. This promotes efficient cooling on all sides of the drive, improving thermal performance and reliability during demanding workloads.

Cody has been working as a thermal mechanical design engineer for most of his career, designing solutions for companies such as Intel and CoolIT. He performs complex thermal analysis on PCBs with multiple power sources influencing board placement and optimizing conduction paths. Cody is skilled in CFD, CAD, Solidworks, DFMEA, DFM, DFA, CNC, CAM, Thermal data acquisition, thermal analysis, data analysis, server thermal analysis, mechanical tolerance analysis, and HVM design. It is apparent where his interest lies.

Cody’s hobbies included using his CNC Router, woodworking, and welding.

This is a technical discussion on cooling and thermal design. This is a shorter-than-normal podcast, so if you can spare 30 minutes, it’s worth your time. If not, we have broken it down into five-minute segments, so you can find the topics that interest you.

0–7 min:

Why Liquid Cool SSDs? (And Who Let the Engineers Out?)

• Introducing Cody from Solidigm
• Highlighting Solidigm’s GTC demo: liquid-cooled SSDs
• Pairing cold plates and storage, usually reserved for CPUs and GPUs
• What inspired Solidigm to take the plunge
• Data centers are evolving from air to hybrid to full liquid cooling
• Pushing the market forward by showing that storage can (and maybe should) be part of the liquid cooling revolution
• The goal: keep SSDs cool without sacrificing serviceability or requiring fancy tools
• Reminiscing about dunking Solidigm drives in Castrol fluid for a previous video, highlighting the humor (and mess) of hot-swapping SSDs in oil
• Can we cool the whole system, including storage

7–11 min:

The One-Sided Cold Plate

• Solidigm’s demo utilized E1.s drives, which are popular with hyperscalers
• Good fit for liquid cooling experiments
• The cold plate only contacts one side of the SSD, saving space and adding more drives
• Are there changes to the PCB
• Some internal tweaks to optimize heat transfer, but the core drive remains familiar

11–17 min:

Performance, Power, and the Next Gen of SSDs

• Does liquid cooling just match air cooling, or does it actually boost performance
• Liquid cooling is a game-changer, pushing SSD power and performance beyond what’s possible with air cooling
• Power management
• What does the future hold for Gen6 SSDs
• Power is going up, and connector limitations are a factor
• Pushing the boundaries for specific applications
• Will Solidigm patent this, or will it be open-sourced

17–22 min:

From Labs to Parking Lots, The Wild World of Cooling

• The explosion of liquid cooling vendors and the rise of immersion cooling
• Wild deployments like DUG’s 440+ immersion tanks
• It’s an exciting time to be a thermal engineer
  • A significant surge in cooling innovation
  • Solidigm is ensuring its drives can handle air, immersion, and direct liquid cooling
• Immersion cooling can lower failure rates, but will liquid cooling make SSDs even more reliable

22–27 min:

GTC Demo Reactions: “What Is Going On Here?”

• What did people think of the GTC demo
• The most common reaction was, “What is going on?”
• The demo sparked a lot of industry chatter and got people thinking about 100% liquid-cooled systems and new ways to design dense storage.

Wrap-up:

The Future of Liquid-Cooled Storage

• Wrap up, noting that liquid cooling is here, especially for high-density AI servers
• Hats off to Solidigm for showing off new tech before it’s even on the market
• Thanks to Cody for escaping the thermal lab to share his insights