A recently discovered Microsoft-branded SSD suggests that the tech giant may be, or at least has been, exploring new ways to optimize its data center storage.
Leaked images of a Microsoft Z1000 SSD show a 1TB M.2 NVMe drive, which apparently features sequential read speeds of up to 2,400 MB/s and write speeds of 1,800 MB/s.
The Z1000 SSD, originally revealed by @yuuki_ans on Data center hyperscalers.
Up to 4TB capacity
In 2018, CNEX Labs closed a $23 million Series D funding round led by Dell Technologies Capital that also included Microsoft's M12 venture fund. This money was partially used to fund an advanced, proprietary CNX-2670 controller that delivered 550,000 IOPS, a 25% performance increase over previously available M.2 form factor SSDs at the time. The CNEX Labs controller in the leaked photos is CNX-2670AA-0821.
The SSD has a capacity of 960GB made up of four 256GB 96-layer Toshiba BiCS4 eTLC chips and features a 1GB DDR4 RAM cache made by Micron for improved performance.
The leaked “engineering sample”, produced on May 18, 2020, when much of the world was under Covid lockdown, suggests the drive is part of a broader portfolio of SSD models. Its design allows the addition of more DRAM and capacitors, hinting at larger versions.
As Tom Hardware notes that “there are several unused solder pads on both sides of the PCB, presumably for additional capacitors. This implies that there may be larger versions of the Z1000 with 2TB and perhaps even 4TB of space, since a larger capacity would require more DRAM and capacitors to ensure data protection.”
This isn't the first time Microsoft has experimented with hardware design for its data centers, and it recently unveiled its own brand of silicon hardware to help promote the development and use of AI in enterprises.
SSD: Microsoft Z1000 960GB M.2 22110 NVMe 1.2 Drive(Control): CNEXLabs CNX-2670AA-CB2T(19y6w) Drive(Cache): Micron（D9VPP） DDR4 1GB MT40A1G8SA-075:E Drive(NAND): Toshiba 3D eTL c – 256 GB TH58LJT1V24BA8H (bics4 96L) pic.twitter.com/ifgxTDiiJMMarch 9, 2024
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