Micro Launches High Capacity 6500 ION and High Endurance XTR SSDs
Micron announced its 6500 ION NVMe and XTR NVMe SSDs on the 16th of May 2023.
Both drives are designed for completely different tasks, with the 6500 ION being designed for ultra-high capacities, only being available in a 30.72TB capacity – this is now the first datacentre SSD to use 232-layer TLC NAND memory. Micron says TLC NAND flash memory delivers the economics of QLC flash without the inherent drawbacks of QLC, like reduced performance and endurance. The 6500 ION doesn’t slack in the performance department either, having sequential read/write speeds of 6.8GB/s and 5GB/s respectively and up to 1 million/200 000 random read IOPS. The 6500 ION’s endurance works out to 1 drive write per day.
The 6500 ION is designed to work well for most workloads, but there are always demanding applications where higher endurance is required. That’s where the XTX steps in.
The XTR NVMe SSD is the total opposite to the 6500 ION, only coming in a capacity of 960GB and 1.92TB. The XTR is designed for extremely intensive write environments, with a write endurance which works out to 35 random drive writes per day. Even with its high endurance the drive still delivers 6.8GB/s and 5.6GB/s sequential read/write speeds and 900 000/350 00 random 4K read/write IOPS.
Naturally, between the two new offerings from Micron, the XTX being available in a max size of 1.92TB will only be used in very specific circumstances. Both the 6500 ION and XTR and skipping to select Micron partners this month and will be more available in the months to come.
