Micron Unveils Fastest Data Center SSD Backed by Giants

Micron Technology has announced the release of the Micron 9550 NVMe SSD, setting a new benchmark as the fastest data center SSD globally. This state-of-the-art SSD not only excels in AI workload performance but also leads the industry in energy efficiency. The Micron 9550 SSD integrates Micron’s proprietary controller, NAND, DRAM, and firmware into a single, cohesive product, offering unparalleled performance, energy efficiency, and security features for data centers.

The Micron 9550 SSD has received strong support from leading server chip manufacturers, including NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, highlighting its powerful storage capabilities for their AI chips. According to Micron, the 9550 SSD offers the best performance in its class, with sequential read speeds of up to 14.0 GB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 10.0 GB/s, surpassing competing SSDs by 67%. It is particularly well-suited for high-intensity workloads such as AI. Additionally, the 9550 SSD boasts random read speeds of 3,300 KIOPS (a 35% improvement) and random write speeds of 400 KIOPS (a 33% improvement) compared to its competitors.

AI workloads demand high-performance storage solutions, and the 9550 SSD delivers exceptional sequential and random read and write speeds, making it ideal for AI operations. For instance, large language models (LLMs) require high sequential read speeds, while graph neural networks (GNNs) need high random read speeds. The Micron 9550 SSD significantly outperforms competitors in critical AI workloads, reducing task completion times by 33% and enhancing GNN training with Big Accelerator Memory (BaM) by 60%. It also offers a 34% increase in throughput for NVIDIA Magnum IO™ GPUDirect® Storage.

Alvaro Toledo, Vice President and General Manager of Micron's Data Center Storage Business Unit, stated that the Micron 9550 SSD represents a major leap forward in data center storage technology. Compared to similar SSD products, the 9550 SSD delivers up to 3.3 million IOPS in GNN or LLM training and reduces power consumption by 43%.