SSD Manufacturers – The SSD Guy Blog

SSD Shortage Drives Stratospheric Revenues

It’s earnings season, and nearly all of the major NAND flash makers, all of whom are leading SSD makers as well, have reported astronomical revenues for the first calendar quarter of 2026. (The only straggler is Kioxia, who won’t be reporting until the middle of May.) The SSD Guy dug into these companies’ earnings announcements, and their numbers show that AI’s phenomenal capital spending is driving NAND and SSD revenues unlike any previously seen.

Take Sandisk for example, who Continue reading “SSD Shortage Drives Stratospheric Revenues”

Using SSDs to Reduce AI Training Costs

SSDs are often used to either minimize a server’s DRAM requirements or to reduce the number of servers required in a data center, a fact that The SSD Guy likes to bring up whenever he can. These attributes were the main reason that SSDs gained such rapid acceptance in hyperscale datacenters about 20 years ago, when the world’s largest datacenters began to radically change the structure of their systems and embrace the widespread use of SSDs.

With this in mind, it’s unsurprising that Continue reading “Using SSDs to Reduce AI Training Costs”

A Liquid Cooled SSD, AND It’s Hot Swappable!

Drawing of a head splitting open into a big liquid splash - one of the effects from a Terminator movie

Solidigm has unveiled a hot-swappable liquid-cooled enterprise SSD. The company expects for this to help remove any need for cooling fans and allow designers to create fully liquid-cooled AI servers and storage systems. They took some time to brief The SSD Guy about their new approach to heat removal.

Here’s what they were looking to accomplish: Hyperscalers and other large computing installations would like Continue reading “A Liquid Cooled SSD, AND It’s Hot Swappable!”

The Return of SanDisk

At the end of 2024 Western Digital will execute on its long-planned separation in which the flash and HDD businesses will divide into two companies. The HDD business will keep the Western Digital or WDC brand, and the flash business, which has continuously used the SanDisk name as a brand name for consumer flash products, will return to using the SanDisk name for the company and all of its products.

This move was initiated by Continue reading “The Return of SanDisk”

New Interest in Monster-SSDs

While listening to the most recent quarterly earnings calls The SSD Guy learned that there’s suddenly a lot of interest in 60-100TB SSDs for the data center. What I didn’t hear was a strong understanding of why that is happening, although four of the five the leading flash companies say that it is driven by AI. (Kioxia hasn’t reported yet.) Some say these SSDs are being used for training applications, while others say Continue reading “New Interest in Monster-SSDs”

WDC Stealthily Announces More Details for HDD/Flash Split

On March 5 Western Digital issued an announcement updating the company’s plan to divide its HDD and flash businesses into two independent companies in the second half of this year.

The flash part of the business will be spun out with current WDC CEO David Goeckeler as “CEO Designate.” No further Continue reading “WDC Stealthily Announces More Details for HDD/Flash Split”

It’s Official: WDC to Split into HDD & Flash Parts

During the company’s October 30 earnings call Western Digital CEO David Goeckeler started the conversation with the revelation that the company would be split into two, with a new flash-only company to be created in the process. This plan, intended to increase the company’s shareholder value, was the outcome of a process triggered by activist shareholder Elliott in May 2022, which was the subject of a couple of Continue reading “It’s Official: WDC to Split into HDD & Flash Parts”

SNIA CXL Webinar

On June 27, The SSD Guy moderated a 1-hour CXL webinar, sponsored by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). The slides are already online at the SNIA Educational Library, and a recorded video is available on BrightTalk. Both attendees and those who missed it can now take advantage of this rare collection of Continue reading “SNIA CXL Webinar”

Optane’s Legacy, Part III: Memory Expansion and Security

A lot of folks believe that when Intel’s Optane is gone there will be nothing left but the story of its rise and fall. That is far from the truth. Optane has created a legacy of developments that will find use in computing for quite some time.

In this three-part series The SSD Guy blog reviews Optane’s lasting legacy to reveal six changes that it has brought to computing architecture in its short lifetime.

Each of the three parts covers two new developments:

- - - New programming paradigm & instructions
    - New approach to 2-speed memory & latency handling
    - New approach to memory expansion & security

This third and final post will cover Optane’s new approach to memory expansion and the new security Continue reading “Optane’s Legacy, Part III: Memory Expansion and Security”

Would WDC Really Merge with Kioxia?

Ever since Toshiba decided to spin out its memory business in 2017, leading to the creation of Kioxia, there have been rumors of Western Digital (WDC) acquiring it, or of Kioxia acquiring WDC’s flash memory business.

There is a new spate of merger rumors in response to Elliott Management’s proposal last May that Continue reading “Would WDC Really Merge with Kioxia?”