KIOXIA has confirmed the CM10 Series, its first PCIe 6.0 enterprise SSD and first drive built on BiCS FLASH generation 10 TLC memory, purpose-built for NVIDIA's CMX key-value cache architecture. For UK teams speccing storage solutions for AI and analytics, it's the clearest signal yet that KV cache is becoming its own procurement category.
View the data behind this chart
| Sequential read | Random read | |
|---|---|---|
| Uplift vs CM9 | % higher92 | % higher85 |
What KIOXIA has actually announced
The CM10 Series spans E3.S, E1.S, and 2.5-inch form factors, with capacities from 1.60TB to 61.44TB and separate read-intensive and mixed-use endurance tiers. The PCIe 6.0 versions — E3.S at 7.5mm and E1.S in 9.5mm and 15mm — use 332-layer BiCS FLASH generation 10 TLC memory, while the 15mm 2.5-inch model stays on PCIe 5.0 with generation 8 TLC. All three form factors support NVMe 2.1, the OCP Datacenter NVMe SSD Specification 2.7 (with some requirements not covered), and NVMe Flexible Data Placement for reducing write amplification, according to StorageReview's reporting on the launch.
Samples are currently going out to select customers for functional testing, with production specifications still subject to change. KIOXIA is showing the drives publicly at FMS: the Future of Memory and Storage in Santa Clara from 4-6 August.
Why NVIDIA CMX changes the storage-tier maths
CMX is NVIDIA's context memory storage platform, designed to extend effective GPU memory with a shared, pod-level tier optimised for ephemeral KV cache rather than persistent data. As agentic AI context windows stretch toward millions of tokens and models scale into the trillions of parameters, holding all of that intermediate state in accelerator memory stops being economical.
For UK buyers already optimising for AI inference workloads rather than training clusters, this matters because KV cache tiers sit in a different latency and endurance bracket to bulk model storage — closer to memory-tier expectations than to archive-tier ones.
DWPD, endurance, and workload fit
KIOXIA offers the CM10 in read-intensive (1 DWPD) and mixed-use (3 DWPD) variants. That split matters because ephemeral KV cache workloads generate heavy write churn as context is evicted and refreshed continuously — closer to a mixed-use or write-heavy profile than a typical read-intensive database tier. UK procurement teams should model expected write volumes against the drive's rated DWPD before committing to the cheaper read-intensive SKU purely on price.
Anyone unfamiliar with how these ratings translate into real deployment life should start by understanding SSD endurance, DWPD, and TBW, then use a tool to calculate DWPD and TBW against their own projected KV cache turnover before signing off capacity.
BiCS Gen10 TLC and the Gen6 interface uplift
The move to 332-layer BiCS FLASH generation 10 TLC memory pairs with the PCIe 6.0 interface to deliver KIOXIA's stated uplift of up to roughly 92% higher sequential read performance and up to roughly 85% higher random read performance versus the previous CM9 Series. KIOXIA is explicit that real-world results depend on host platform, drivers, operating system and workload, so these figures should be treated as ceiling numbers rather than guaranteed throughput.
Buyers weighing TLC against denser but slower cell types for this tier should review BiCS FLASH generation 10 TLC memory against QLC alternatives before assuming TLC is over-specified for cache duty — for ephemeral, high-churn KV data, TLC's endurance and latency profile is the safer default. More broadly, the implications of PCIe 6.0 for UK data-centre fabrics go beyond a single drive family, affecting how racks are cabled, cooled and power-budgeted.
A crowded first wave of Gen6 enterprise SSDs
KIOXIA isn't launching into a vacuum. Micron's 9650 is already positioned as a PCIe 6.0 enterprise SSD for AI data-centre use, reported at up to 28 GB/s sequential read and 5.5 million random read IOPS. Samsung has announced its PM1763, described as its first PCIe 6.0 enterprise SSD for AI and HPC servers, and Silicon Motion says its SM8466 Gen6 controller specifically targets NVIDIA CMX and KV-cache extension use cases. That combination suggests Gen6 KV cache storage is shaping into a multi-vendor ecosystem rather than a single-supplier bet, which is good news for UK buyers wary of lock-in on a nascent interface.
Dual-port designs on the E3.S and 2.5-inch models, plus direct cold-plate liquid cooling support on E3.S and 9.5mm E1.S drives, also point to deployment in dense, high-availability pods rather than general-purpose servers — worth checking against your server configuration plans before assuming drop-in compatibility.
View the data behind this chart
| KIOXIA CM10 | Micron 9650 | Samsung PM1763 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface | PCIe 6.0 | PCIe 6.0 | PCIe 6.0 |
| Seq. read (reported) | Not disclosed (up to… | 28 GB/s | 28.4 GB/s |
| Random read IOPS | Not disclosed (up to… | 5.5M | Not disclosed |
| NAND generation | BiCS Gen10 | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Primary positioning | AI KV cache | AI inference | AI/HPC servers |
What UK buyers should do next
With CM10 still in customer sampling and no confirmed general availability date, the immediate action for UK IT leaders is evaluation, not procurement. Get samples into a qualification pipeline if you have an active CMX or KV-cache project, but budget current-generation Gen5 capacity for anything that needs to ship in the next few quarters. Security features worth flagging early to compliance teams include SIE, SED, a planned FIPS 140-3 SED option, post-quantum cryptography, CNSA 2.0 support and SPDM 1.4 attestation — all listed against the CM10 but with SED availability subject to local regulatory restrictions.
When mapping this against existing fleets, revisit your baseline understanding of what NVMe means for performance and check with your preferred integrator — whether through the Dell server configurator, HPE server configurator, or Lenovo server configurator — on Gen6 backplane and riser support before committing rack designs to this generation of drive.
- 01StorageReview — KIOXIA CM10 Is Its First PCIe 6.0 Enterprise SSD, Aimed at NVIDIA CMX KV Cache · 31 July 2026
- 02Blocks & Files — Kioxia launches KV-caching SSD and AI-focussed fingernail drive · 30 July 2026
- 03NVIDIA — CMX Context Memory Storage · 31 July 2026
- 04ServeTheHome — KIOXIA GP Series and CM9 Launched for the Era of Agentic AI Storage · 31 July 2026
- 05ServeTheHome — Spotted at Computex 2026: Micron's First PCIe Gen6 Data Center SSD, the 9650 · 31 July 2026
- 06ServeTheHome — Samsung PM1763 PCIe Gen6 Enterprise SSD in Production · 31 July 2026
- 07Tom's Hardware — SMI's PCIe 6.0 SSD Controller and NAND Supply Interview with Silicon Motion's SVP Nelson Duann · 31 July 2026