Micron 9650 SSD Promises 28GB/Second Reads Before PCIe Gen6 Servers Ship
Micron’s 9650 enterprise SSD is rated for up to 28GB/second reads and 5.5M random-read IOPS, with liquid cooling expected for the E1. S form factor. Public PCIe Gen6 server platforms were not yet available for a Computex demo.
Micron rates its 9650 enterprise SSD for up to 28GB/second sequential reads and is positioning the drive for AI inference and training systems.
ServeTheHome reported that public PCIe Gen6 server platforms were not yet ready for a live Computex demonstration.
Mass production has begun, but shipping systems able to show the drive operating on a public PCIe Gen6 platform were not available at the event.
Micron 9650 Targets 28GB/Second Reads
The 28GB/second figure is a Micron product rating rather than an independent benchmark of the PCIe Gen6 x4 saturation claim.
Micron also rates the drive for up to 5.5 million random-read IOPS, 14GB/second sequential writes and 900,000 random-write IOPS.
Those figures describe a read-optimised product rather than one balanced across reads and writes.
Micron's read rating is more than twice that of its Gen5 9550 drives, but independent benchmark runs, customer validation and server-level application tests remain unavailable.
Liquid Cooling Enters The Enterprise SSD Line
The smallest 9650 form factor, the ultra-compact E1.S configuration, is the first Micron SSD that ServeTheHome characterised as effectively requiring direct liquid cooling rather than merely supporting it.
Micron describes the configuration as optimised for liquid cooling.
The performance figures assume 25 watts of drive power.
At that level, the E1.S configuration ties storage deployment more closely to the server's cooling design.
The drive combines Micron's new PCIe Gen6 controller with ninth-generation G9 TLC NAND running at 3,600MT/second.
G9 NAND already appears in other Micron products, making the controller the main change behind the 9650's performance claim.
AI Servers Still Need PCIe Gen6 Platforms
Public PCIe Gen6 server platforms were not available for the Computex demonstration, leaving deployment timing tied to the server-platform cycle.
Nvidia and AMD server launches are focused on 2027, while Intel Xeon 7 Diamond Rapids follows a different path.
Hyperscale designs and Arm AGI CPU designs are expected over the next few quarters.
Capacity Depends On Workload Class
The read-optimised PRO drives are listed at capacities up to 30.72TB, while mixed-workload MAX drives reach up to 25.6TB.
First customers, compatible shipping servers, deployment dates, independent benchmarks and purchase commitments for the 9650 have not been disclosed.
