Kioxia’s new SSD exceeds 20 million random-read IOPS

Kioxia has announced an upgraded GP-series SSD that exceeds 20 million input/output operations per second (IOPS) when randomly reading 512-byte blocks. Its GP1, unveiled in August 2026, delivered about 10 million IOPS, making the new model roughly twice as fast on that measure.

The drive uses third-generation XL-FLASH memory. Kioxia says it delivers three times the reading speed and about 150% higher writing speed than the previous generation. The company is pursuing a plan to challenge DRAM in AI markets with flash storage designed to approach memory-class speeds. Kioxia has not disclosed the upgraded model’s endurance rating or confirmed whether it retains the PCIe 6.0 interface used by its predecessor.

Kioxia also showed the LD4, a QLC drive with a four-lane PCIe 5 link. It is available in 15.36 TB and 30.72 TB capacities, and its design can scale to 122.88 TB. Kioxia has not released speed or durability figures for the LD4.