Western Digital Unveils Next-Generation AI Storage Solutions at Flash Memory Summit 2024

Western Digital, a prominent leader in flash and hard disk drive (HDD) data storage, made a significant impact at this year’s Flash Memory Summit (FMS) 2024 by introducing innovative storage solutions designed to meet the growing demands of artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. 

The company’s latest advancements, which catered to sectors ranging from hyperscale cloud to automotive and consumer electronics, promised to redefine performance, capacity, and efficiency for AI-driven data cycles. 

A highlight of the event was the keynote address delivered by Rob Soderbery, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Western Digital’s Flash Business Unit. 

Held on Tuesday of the event, Soderbery’s keynote explored the strategic advancements shaping the future of NAND, AI, and data storage, emphasizing their impact from data centers to edge computing.

“As AI technologies continue to evolve and become more pervasive, the demand for storage solutions will only intensify,” said Soderbery. “Western Digital’s product and technology roadmaps are strategically aligned to ensure our customers have the most advanced, reliable solutions to stay ahead in the rapidly changing AI landscape. We were excited to showcase our full range of products and demonstrate how they can transform AI now and into the future.”

Western Digital’s presence at FMS 2024 underscored its commitment to addressing the challenges posed by the rapid rise of AI, machine learning (ML), and large language models (LLMs). As data generation and consumption skyrocketed, organizations faced increasing pressure to extract value from this data swiftly. The company’s comprehensive storage portfolio was designed to support every stage of the evolving AI data cycle, with several key innovations on display.

In the data center segment, Western Digital showcased its leading products, including a PCIe® Gen5 enterprise-class SSD (eSSD) optimized for compute-intensive applications, a new 64TB eSSD for storage-intensive needs, and the world’s first 32TB ePMR SMR HDD designed for massive data storage at scale. The company also demonstrated its BiCS8 128TB high-capacity QLC eSSD for AI data lakes and capacity-intensive performance applications. Additionally, a new RapidFlex™ Interposer for NVMe-oF™ solutions was featured, enabling efficient AI workflows by converting PCIe SSD signals to Ethernet.

For client computing, Western Digital demonstrated BiCS8 performance and mainstream PCIe Gen5 NVMe™ SSDs, which were designed to power AI-driven PCs, gaming rigs, workstations, laptops, and mobile client devices.

In the automotive sector, Western Digital introduced the AT EN610, an automotive-grade storage solution tailored for next-generation high-performance centralized computing (HPCC) architectures. It offered flexibility with high-capacity TLC and high-endurance SLC configurations and was available in an M.2 Type 1620 BGA form factor. Additionally, the company previewed the Western Digital iNAND AT EU752, a cutting-edge automotive-grade storage solution designed for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving systems, which is set to begin sampling in Q1 2025.

Western Digital also unveiled breakthrough consumer products, including the world’s first SanDisk® 4TB microSDUC™ UHS-I card and 8TB SDUC™ UHS-I card. These products, along with a 16TB portable SSD proof of concept and the 16TB SanDisk® Desk Drive, were designed to meet the high-capacity and high-performance storage needs of consumers who rely on their devices for rich and engaging content.