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Today, Micron announced a refreshed portfolio of data center NVMe™ SSDs that leap ahead in performance, capacity and efficiency. This lineup — all built on Micron G9 NAND flash — positions us as the first company in the world to bring ninth-generation NAND-based SSDs to data centers, outpacing competitors still on older flash technology. This refreshed portfolio includes three flagship drives:
- Micron 9650: The world’s first PCIe® Gen6 SSD delivers record speeds of 28 GB/s for the most demanding workloads.
- Micron 6600 ION: Built with Micron’s innovative G9 QLC NAND, the 122TB capacity and E3.S form factor leads the industry and a planned 245TB in an E3.L form factor coming soon.
- Micron 7600: A PCIe Gen5 SSD that brings best-in-class latency and quality of service (QoS) to mainstream workloads, helping customers scale AI and cloud infrastructure with confidence.
In this blog, we examine the technical specs of each SSD and explore their market impact, highlighting why these innovations matter for cloud providers and enterprise customers. We also cover how Micron G9 NAND leadership translates into tangible benefits such as higher performance, improved energy efficiency and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for storage infrastructures.
Micron 9650: PCIe Gen6 performance breakthrough
The Micron 9650 is Micron’s new flagship performance drive and, notably, the industry’s first PCIe Gen6 data center SSD. This drive aims to feed the most data-hungry applications and use cases by eliminating storage bottlenecks — think AI training, machine learning, key value caches, vector database indexes and graph-based transformational models. Here are some key technical highlights of the Micron 9650:
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- PCIe Gen6 x4 interface: Doubling the lane speed over Gen5, PCIe Gen6 enables a huge improvement in throughput. The Micron 9650 showcases up to 28 GB/s sequential read bandwidth — a new bar for SSD performance. In fact, this is roughly twice the performance of leading PCIe Gen5 drives such as the Micron 9550. For context, PCIe Gen5 drives typically peak around 14 GB/s in sequential reads, so the Micron 9650’s achievement is remarkable. It also achieves up to 14 GB/s sequential writes.
- Massive input/output (I/O) rates: Thanks to Micron’s new controller architecture and Micron G9 TLC NAND, the Micron 9650 can achieve 5.5 million random read input/output operations per second (IOPS; 4K) at high queue depths. Random write performance reaches up to 900,000 IOPS on certain configurations. This I/O firepower ensures that even highly concurrent, mixed workloads — such as deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow®, PyTorch® with CUDA®-X libraries), data science and analytics libraries (RAPIDS™, Apache Spark™ with GPU acceleration), scientific computing applications, and workloads using NVIDIA® GPU Direct Storage — are all serviced with minimal latency.
- High capacities: The Micron 9650 uses Micron G9 TLC NAND, with an industry-leading six-plane architecture and I/O speeds of 3.6 GB/s per die. It will be offered in capacities from 6.4TB up to 30.72TB to suit different use-cases. Both read-intensive (1 drive write per day [DWPD]) and mixed-use (3DWPD) endurance models are available, labeled PRO and MAX, respectively.
- Energy efficiency and cooling: Micron designed the Micron 9650 not just for speed but also for efficiency. Despite the higher interface bandwidth, the drive is optimized for performance per watt. It’s also built with advanced cooling in mind, including liquid cooling options for dense AI servers. By delivering more work per drive and supporting modern cold-plate cooling options, the Micron 9650 helps reduce the environmental footprint of AI infrastructure.
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The market impact of the Micron 9650 is significant. It enables upcoming cutting-edge CPUs and GPUs to operate at full potential. For example, NVIDIA’s new GPU-accelerated servers (such as the upcoming Rubin-based system) support PCIe Gen6 links, and the Micron 9650 is ready to plug in and instantly double the bandwidth per drive to those GPUs. So data-intensive workloads can ingest and process data faster, reducing training times and improving throughput on expensive compute resources.
By launching the Micron 9650 now, Micron is the first to market with PCIe Gen6 storage and actively seeding the ecosystem. Partners have used early Micron 9650 samples to demonstrate next-generation solutions. For example, at Computex, Astera Labs showed two Micron 9650 engineering samples that were connected to a PCIe Gen6 switch-feeding a Hopper GPU.
Micron 6600 ION: Record-setting capacity and TCO game-changer
If the Micron 9650 targets performance, the Micron 6600 ION targets cost-efficient capacity at scale. It’s a quad-level cell (QLC)-based drive using Micron G9 NAND technology, and it has burst onto the scene as the highest-density SSD ever announced. The Micron 6600 ION comes in three sizes: a U.2 form factor with capacities ranging from 32TB to 128TB, an E3.S 1T form factor delivering up to 128TB, and an upcoming E3.L version targeting a staggering 245TB, about a quarter of a petabyte on a single drive! For comparison, mainstream data center SSDs historically topped out around 30TB to 60TB — and even the densest HDDs holds 36TB. So, the Micron 6600 ION simply obliterates previous capacity limits, which has huge implications:
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- Storage consolidation: With 122TB per E3.S drive, the Micron 6600 ION enables exceptional rack-level density. A single 1U server chassis can accommodate 20 front-loaded E3.S drives — envision 40 of these 122TB drives in a 2U server, totaling 4.88PB. In comparison, a standard 2U server supports 24 front-loaded U.2 drives. This means the Micron 6600 ION delivers approximately 67% more density than existing 122TB drives on the market. Fewer racks are needed to store the same amount of data, reducing both floor space costs and infrastructure overhead. In fact, storing an exabyte would require seven fewer racks with Micron 6600 ION drives versus conventional U.2 SSDs — saving nearly 200 square feet of data center space.
- HDD replacement economics and energy efficiency: The Micron 6600 ION, built on Micron G9 QLC NAND, is engineered to be a cost-effective flash solution for capacity-centric workloads, making it a compelling alternative to traditional spinning disks. With capacities of up to 122TB in E3.S and a planned 245TB in E3.L, the 6600 ION dramatically consolidates storage. For example, a single 122TB drive can replace three 36TB HDDs in terms of capacity while consuming a fraction of the power and delivering far superior latency and throughput. In a 1EB deployment — common in AI-scale environments — migrating from HDDs to Micron 6600 ION can eliminate 25,000 nearline hard drives, translating to significant savings in power and space. At the rack level, the Micron 6600 ION offers up to 3.4 times greater density and over 3,000 times more IOPS than the densest HDD configurations. Such results dramatically improve performance per watt and reduce TCO. These figures are based on a conservative comparison using optimal HDD server densities (for example, 20 x 36TB HDDs per 1U) versus E3.S-based servers with E3.S drives. Ultimately, customers can consolidate infrastructure, shrink their data center footprint and meet sustainability goals without compromising on performance.
Technically, the Micron 6600 ION uses Micron G9 QLC NAND, making it the first ninth-generation QLC SSD in the world. Paired with Micron’s own controller, DRAM and firmware, this vertically integrated design enables strong performance and reliability. It supports standard NVMe and enterprise features such as OCP 2.6 and CNSA 2.0. (The architecture is shared with its predecessor, the proven Micron 6550 ION, which is now boosted by Micron G9 NAND.) Endurance is read-focused (≤ 0.3 DWPD for 4K random workloads), appropriate for data lake, AI training data, content repositories and other “read-many, write-few” scenarios. For such applications, the cost per terabyte and density advantages are far more valuable than extreme write endurance.
The introduction of 122TB E3.S solutions reshapes storage design. Cloud providers — who constantly juggle between slower, cheap storage and fast, expensive storage — now have a new option that offers nearline capacity with SSD speeds.
Micron 7600: Next mainstream NVMe for AI and Cloud
Rounding out the Micron G9 technology portfolio is the Micron 7600 SSD, which is positioned as the workhorse drive for broad data center adoption. It follows the popular Micron 7450 and Micron 7500 series, now upgrading to Micron G9 TLC NAND and NVMe 2.0 on a PCIe Gen5 interface. While not as specialized as the Micron 9650 or Micron 6600 ION, the Micron 7600 introduces meaningful improvements that customers deploying mainstream servers and storage arrays will appreciate, especially regarding latency and reliability for mixed workloads. The Micron 7600 offers these key features and specs:
- Leading PCIe Gen5 performance: The Micron 7600 delivers high throughput within the PCIe Gen5 limits — up to about 12 GB/s sequential reads and 6.5 to 7 GB/s in sequential writes, depending on capacity. This sequential write is approximately 27% better than the nearest competitor’s PCIe Gen5 mainstream drive shipping today. Similarly, random read performance reaches 2.1 million IOPS (4K), edging out other mainstream SSDs.
- Leading low latency and quality of service: Micron placed a lot of focus on latency consistency in the Micron 7600, knowing that modern cloud and AI tasks are sensitive not just to max IOPS, but also to tail latencies. The result: the Micron 7600 exhibits the lowest read and write latencies in its class. At a 99.9999% QoS threshold (six nines), it maintains sub-1 millisecond latencies even up to a queue depth of 256 (QD256) in 4K random reads. When compared under identical conditions, the Micron 7600’s read latency was measured at 55% to 67% lower than competing PCIe Gen5 mainstream SSDs in the market today across various read and write mixes. In other words, under heavy mixed workloads (typical of online transactional processing [OLTP] databases, AI inference queries and more), the Micron 7600 is faster and far more predictable, which translates into faster application response times and tighter service-level agreements (SLAs). These enhancements make it an ideal choice for latency-sensitive scenarios. For example, an AI recommendation engine that does tons of small random reads can trust the Micron 7600 to deliver quick, consistent data access, thereby improving end-user experience.
- Enterprise-grade features: As a mainstream drive, the Micron 7600 is built to slot into existing enterprise ecosystems. It supports the latest OCP 2.6 and NVMe 2.0b specs, as well as industry-leading security specs such as SPDM 1.2 and TCG Opal 2.02. Further, thanks to the Micron Secure Encrypted Environment (SEE), which provides dedicated security processing hardware with physical isolation, the drive can support CNSA 2.0 and FIPS 140-3 Level 2 compliance.
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- Power and efficiency: Being a PCIe Gen5 means that the Micron 7600 draws a bit more power under load (~20–25 W). However, thanks to the efficiency of the Micron G9 NAND and controller optimizations, it delivers high performance per watt. For instance, it can do approximately 400,000 4K random write IOPS at 25 W, giving it a better IOPS per watt rating than some competitors (as high as twice that of the competitors). And by excelling in mixed-workload throughput, a single Micron 7600 could replace multiple older drives to achieve the same workload, consolidating energy use. Overall, the Micron 7600 brings PCIe Gen5 speeds while keeping energy use in check, helping lower the total cost of operation.
The Micron 7600 targets a broad set of applications, from virtualized enterprise workloads, cloud instances and web servicing to AI inference and edge computing. It provides an attractive combination of high speed and low latency, which means that it doesn’t force a tradeoff. The customer gets both IOPS and consistency.
In conclusion, Micron’s refreshed portfolio — the Micron 9650, 6600 ION and 7600 — is significant not just for its products but also as a statement of technological leadership in storage. All three products use Micron G9 NAND, with both TLC and QLC variants, bringing its benefits to market ahead of competitors. By migrating our entire data center SSD lineup to Micron G9 NAND, we have enabled higher performance, higher density and better efficiency in each segment.
This first mover advantage shows in the specs we discussed — massive six-plane parallelism boosting throughput on the Micron 9650, bit density advantages of Micron G9 QLC enabling the 122TB E3.S Micron 6600 ION, and improved latency characteristics of the Micron 7600. These advantages all trace back to Micron’s NAND innovation. From a market perspective, Micron is delivering exactly what data center and cloud customers are asking for: speed, scale and savings.
The Micron G9 NAND technology-based data center SSD portfolio isn’t just a product launch, it’s a signal that the future of data center storage is faster, denser and more sustainable. With the Micron 9650, 6600 ION and 7600, we’re not just keeping pace — we’re setting it.
