Kioxia Claims “World’s Smallest” Title With BG5 Series PCIe 4.0 SSDs

Kioxia recently launched its BG5 series of client SSDs. While the storage medium may seem nothing out of the ordinary, Kioxia claims that it is also the world’s smallest PCIe NVMe Gen4 SSD in the world.

Specifically, the BG5 series comes in the usual M.2 form factor, but instead of just a standard 2280 length, Kioxia’s new family of SSDs is also available the 2230 form factor. As mentioned, the SSD also uses the PCIe 4.0 interface, which is exceedingly rare among memory and storage makers. Further, the SSD uses Kioxia’s 112-layer BiCS5 3D NAND memory with a 1.2GT/s interface, and is available in three storage capacities: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.

In terms of performance, the BG5 PCIe 4.0 SSDs aren’t the fastest we’ve seen on the market, with maximum sequential read and write speeds of 3500MB/s and 2900MB/s, respectively, plus random read and write speeds of 500000 IOPS and 450000 IOPS. We’re guessing that’s the price Kioxia had to pay in order to cram in all the PCIe 4.0 related technology, into a form factor that is usually reserved for AX Wi-Fi modules.

Speaking of downsides, it should be noted that the BG5 series SSDs do not come in the Ball Grid Array (BGA) form factor, meaning that any OEM or laptop maker who wishes to solder the storage modules onto their laptop PCBs are out of luck.

At the time of writing, Kioxia did not specify pricing or availability dates for the BG5 series, but it has stated it is currently sampling the product to several key industry players and customers.

WD Currently In Talks With Kioxia On Possible Merger For US$20 Billion

Back in April, news began to surface online that Kioxia Holdings Corp, the Japanese chipmaker, was the subject of a potential acquisition by two storage brands: Western Digital (WD) and Micron Technology. Fast forward to today, and Micron has pulled out from the bid, leaving WD as the only party currently in talks for a potential merger.

According to Reuters, both companies are currently engaged in advanced talks. If an agreement is reached, both companies could be looking at a stock merger worth US$20 billion (~RM83 billion). Additionally, the merger would make a new entity that will be almost as big as Samsung.

As a quick recap, Kioxia was once a part of Toshiba Memory but gained its independence back in 2019. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and global chip shortage, the memory maker has been slowly foundering and forced to seek outside aid to help it out of its dire straits.

Kioxia isn’t the only memory company that has been consolidating its assets. Back in October last year, SK Hynix announced its acquisition of Intel’s own SSD business for US$9 billion (~RM37.7 billion), while Micron itself recently sold off its 3D Xpoint fabrication facility to Texas Instrument (TI), to the sum of US$1.5 billion (~RM6.25 billion).