Micron displays first PCIe Gen6 data center SSD (9650) at Computex, targeting next-gen CPU-SSD bandwidth for AI inference.

With ongoing industry-wide DRAM and NAND shortages, it is an excellent time to be a memory vendor. It is even better if you have a cutting-edge PCIe Gen6 SSD to demonstrate to data center customers—which Micron achieved at Computex.

First announced last year, Micron's 9650 enterprise SSD is its first PCIe Gen6 drive, targeting the data center market with aggressive performance specifications. The drives deliver sequential read speeds up to 28GB/second, sufficient to saturate a PCIe Gen6 x4 link directly with Micron's first Gen6 controller. Random read performance reaches 5.5M IOPS.

The drive is optimized for read-heavy workloads; while read performance more than doubles that of the Gen5 9550 drives, write performance gains are more modest. Write performance is rated at 14GB/second sequential and 900K IOPS random.

Micron is targeting the highest-performance segment of the market: AI inference and training. As storage I/O bandwidth becomes an increasingly critical bottleneck, Micron expects these workloads to be the primary early adopters of Gen6 SSDs, particularly as new GPUs arrive with even faster model weight processing.

For the first time, Micron's enterprise SSDs will require direct liquid cooling. The E1.S form factor—the company's most compact offering—is the first Micron SSD where liquid cooling is not merely compatible but essentially required, optimized for deployment alongside high-performance GPU servers that similarly demand liquid cooling. The performance specifications assume 25-Watt power consumption, reflecting the thermal demands of these high-end drives.

Micron employs a new PCIe Gen6 controller paired with ninth-generation (G9) TLC NAND running at 3600MT/sec. Since G9 is already deployed in other Micron products, the 9650's performance gains primarily stem from the controller.

Mass production has already begun. However, demonstration units must wait for compatible server platforms; no shipping PCIe Gen6 systems are yet publicly available. The read-optimized PRO variant reaches 30.72TB capacity, while the mixed-workload MAX variant reaches 25.6TB.

PCIe Gen6 adoption requires compatible servers. NVIDIA and AMD are targeting 2027 launches, while Intel Xeon 7 Diamond Rapids follows a different timeline. Designs from hyperscalers and the Arm AGI CPU are expected within the next few quarters, enabling broad data center deployment of Gen6 SSDs.