Kioxia has announced a new 4TB model in its Exceria G3 SSD Series, expanding its range of consumer PCIe 5 drives with the very first QLC NAND-based model.
This new high-capacity option is among the first consumer-available PCIe 5.0 SSDs to use quadruple-level cell (QLC) NAND. It leverages the Kioxia's 8th Gen BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology to deliver higher storage density, reducing cost per terabyte while targeting mainstream desktop and laptop builds.
Performance figures from Kioxia list the drive with sequential read speeds up to 10,000MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 9,600MB/s. Other figures shared by the manufacturer include a maximum random read/write speed of 1,450,000/1,450,000 IOPS, an MTTF (Mean Time to Failure) of 1.5 million hours, and a rated endurance of 2,400TBW. SSD health and other features can be managed through Kioxia's SSD Utility software.
Retail shipments for the Exceria G3 SSD 4TB model are scheduled to begin this month. Like the other Kioxia PCIe 5.0 SSDs, the Exceria G3 4TB SSD is backed by a 5-year warranty.
KitGuru says: Looking for a big PCIe 5.0 SSD? Kioxia's new Exceria G3 4TB SDD might be a good option depending on price.
The post Kioxia adds 4TB QLC model to Exceria G3 M.2 SSD series first appeared on KitGuru.
Everpure has announced the availability of Everpure Data Stream, a new platform component based on the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design. It brings AI processing closer to enterprise data while addressing common challenges related to data preparation, governance, and scalability. The release expands the company’s broader strategy of delivering AI-ready data infrastructure for enterprise environments.
As organizations move from AI experimentation to production deployments, many face obstacles related to ingesting and preparing enterprise data, enforcing security and governance policies, and scaling infrastructure to support growing AI workloads. Everpure says Data Stream reduces data preparation timelines from months to minutes while maintaining stream-level access controls that keep data within enterprise boundaries. Its scale-out architecture also allows storage and compute resources to scale independently as AI requirements evolve.
According to Everpure CTO Robert Lee, organizations building AI platforms require flexible architectures that can support both rapid deployment and long-term scaling. He noted that enterprises need secure, high-performance data pipelines that accelerate data processing and reduce time-to-results.
Everpure positions Data Stream as part of a broader end-to-end AI data platform focused on preparing enterprise information for AI use. The company argues that AI-ready data requires classification, contextualization, governance, security, and scalable access before it can be effectively used for training, inference, or agentic AI applications.
A key component of this strategy is Everpure Data Intelligence, formerly known as 1touch. The platform discovers, classifies, and contextualizes enterprise data across SaaS applications, cloud services, on-premises infrastructure, and mainframe environments. It maps relationships between datasets into a data relationship graph, creating a metadata layer accessible via APIs and the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
The platform also applies attribute-based access controls and governance policies, enabling enterprises to maintain security and compliance requirements as AI models and agents interact directly with business data.
Data Stream is built on the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference architecture and is designed to simplify the conversion of unstructured enterprise data into AI-ready information. Rather than relying on manual ingestion and data preparation processes, the platform uses a GPU-accelerated pipeline spanning data ingestion through inference.
The goal is to reduce operational complexity while improving the speed at which organizations can deploy AI services and generate actionable results.
NVIDIA Vice President of Storage Technology Jason Hardy said modern AI infrastructure requires architectures that connect secure, governed enterprise data with accelerated computing resources. He noted that Everpure’s integration with the NVIDIA AI Data Platform is intended to help organizations move AI initiatives from proof-of-concept stages into production deployments.
Everpure also disclosed ongoing work on next-generation AI-native storage technologies based on NVIDIA Vera and the NVIDIA BlueField-4 STX storage processor. The effort is focused on bringing acceleration, security, and intelligent data services closer to enterprise datasets as agentic AI deployments continue to expand.
To address storage bottlenecks that can limit AI training and inference performance, Everpure highlighted FlashBlade as the storage foundation for Data Stream deployments. The platform delivers low-latency data access and incorporates KV Cache Accelerator technology to improve memory efficiency during inference workloads.
Everpure’s Evergreen architecture allows organizations to scale from FlashBlade//S systems to FlashBlade//EXA deployments without disruptive migrations, supporting growth from smaller AI projects to large-scale AI factory environments. Portworx provides the container platform layer for deploying and managing AI pipelines across edge, core, and data center environments.
By combining data intelligence, data streaming, storage, and container orchestration within a unified architecture, Everpure aims to reduce infrastructure fragmentation and eliminate the need for separate AI data silos.
The announcement aligns with findings from a recent IDC Global AI Readiness Survey commissioned by Everpure, which reported that 94% of IT leaders view data quality as the primary factor influencing AI success. Everpure positions its integrated approach as a way for enterprises to maintain flexibility while adapting to rapidly changing AI requirements.
The post Everpure Launches Data Stream to Accelerate Enterprise AI Data Pipelines appeared first on StorageReview.com.
Everpure has announced new capabilities to help organizations accelerate enterprise AI initiatives while maintaining visibility, governance, and control over their data. The announcement centers on the introduction of Everpure Data Intelligence, formerly known as 1touch.io, alongside several updates to the company’s Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC) architecture.
The company positions the release as a response to the growing challenges created by application-centric IT environments, where critical business information is often isolated within individual applications. As AI adoption increases, these data silos can lead to data sprawl, governance challenges, and costly duplication of information, making it more difficult to establish trusted data sources for AI models and agents.
Everpure Chairman and CEO Charles Giancarlo said enterprises must transition from application-centric architectures to data-centric strategies as AI reshapes IT operations. He emphasized that governance, context, and semantic understanding need to be embedded directly within the data layer so organizations can create trusted, real-time intelligence repositories that support both traditional applications and AI-driven workflows.
Everpure’s approach centers on what it calls a data-primacy model, in which data exists independently of the applications that consume it. In this model, information becomes a shared system of record that carries its own context, meaning, governance policies, and lifecycle controls.
Applications and AI agents can read from and contribute to the data environment, but ownership remains with the data platform itself. This approach is intended to improve consistency while reducing the fragmentation often associated with modern SaaS and AI ecosystems.
Available immediately, Everpure Data Intelligence is designed to discover, classify, and contextualize enterprise data at its source. The platform operates across on-premises infrastructure, public cloud environments, SaaS applications, third-party storage systems, and the broader Everpure platform.
The software provides visibility into both structured and unstructured datasets, including information stored in databases such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. By identifying where critical business data resides, organizations can gain a clearer view of enterprise-wide data assets without relying on application-specific silos.
Data Intelligence also automates governance functions by scanning environments for sensitive information, including personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI). The platform tracks data lineage and relationships, helping organizations maintain compliance and governance requirements across distributed environments.
A key component is its semantic knowledge graph, which maps enterprise data to business context and relationships. According to Everpure, this allows AI agents to better understand enterprise information, improving response accuracy while reducing context window requirements and associated token consumption.
The company also introduced several additions to its Enterprise Data Cloud architecture, beginning with updates to its Unified Data Plane. The goal is to provide a common operational foundation across enterprise infrastructure while reducing storage and performance silos.
One of the more notable announcements is Evergreen//One Overdrive, scheduled for availability in Q3 2026. The capability is designed to provide temporary performance expansion for on-premises storage environments, allowing organizations to absorb workload spikes of up to 25% above baseline levels without permanently increasing subscribed capacity.
Everpure is also expanding its Intelligent Control Plane with AI-driven operational capabilities intended to simplify infrastructure management.
Workload Rebalance & Mobility, expected in Q4 2026, will automatically move active workloads across storage resources without downtime to optimize capacity utilization and maintain application performance.
Copilot Workflow Execution, planned for Q2 2026, introduces natural-language orchestration for storage operations, enabling administrators to plan, validate, and execute infrastructure tasks across distributed environments.
Enhanced Cyber Anomaly Detection, also expected in Q2 2026, analyzes telemetry across the entire infrastructure footprint to identify suspicious behavior patterns and coordinated login activity that may not be visible at the individual system level.
Fusion Compliance & Agentic Triage, scheduled for Q4 2026, will monitor hardware and software configurations for policy drift while using AI-assisted analysis to identify potential root causes and remediation options.
To support organizations adopting a data-centric architecture, Everpure also introduced its EDC Success Blueprint. The framework provides a structured roadmap for assessing infrastructure readiness, identifying security and operational risks, and progressing toward a more automated enterprise data environment.
The broader strategy is focused on creating a unified data fabric that provides visibility into where data resides, how it is connected, and the business context associated with it. By integrating governance, semantic understanding, and AI-driven operations directly into the data layer, Everpure aims to provide enterprises with a foundation for managing both traditional workloads and emerging AI applications at scale.
The post Everpure Introduces Data Intelligence and Enterprise Data Cloud Enhancements for AI Workloads appeared first on StorageReview.com.
Thunderbolt 5 protocol is built on the Thunderbolt 4 technology, but it has taken the game up considerably compared to the last gen. It was released back in 2023, with supporting products starting to roll out in 2024. It is not yet available in mainstream consumer PC hardware. Although USB 4.0 was introduced in Intel and AMD’s latest generations, USB 4.0 V2 or even Thunderbolt 5 is far from reach.
We have got our hands on the Orico X50 Pro, which is a Thunderbolt 5-based storage drive enclosure that supports PCIe Gen5 and Gen4 NVMe SSDs. This is a passive cooling solution, which I have reservations about based on my testing. The salient features include:
This enclosure has an MSRP of USD 239.99 but can be had at USD 199.99 on the Orico website.
The product ships in a cardboard container, which is placed inside a paperboard-made cover. The enclosure is placed in white Styrofoam. Accessories are placed under the enclosure.
The following are provided in a box:
Orico X50 80Gbps Thunderbolt 5 Compatible Portable SSD/M.2 Enclosure is an advanced portable storage option that features 80Gbps bandwidth, hence favoring the PCIe Gen5 drives on paper, but it is not the case since this enclosure is rated for up to 6000MB/s sequential read and 5800MB/s sequential write speed, which is the domain of PCIe Gen4 drives. This enclosure has a dimension of 110x60x18.7mm (LxWxH). It is not a compact form, but you can carry it in your hand comfortably.
Looking at the top of the enclosure, you can see a black perforated cover. Orico has mentioned that this product employs advanced Hydro Film for extreme cooling. The black cover is only there to vent the heat from the thermal pad placed under it. This side of the enclosure is sealed, and the only way to open the enclosure is from the underside.
The complete enclosure is made of a single piece of aluminum, giving a perfect uni-look to it. The sides of the housing are silver in color, providing a nice blend of silver with a black top. You can see Orico branding on one side and manufacturing data on the opposite side.
The enclosure features a single USB-C port on one end. The 80Gbps rating symbol is also visible before the port, confirming its operating speed. A small hole next to the port has a white LED that comes to life during operations on the installed drive.
Looking at the base of the enclosure, you can see a fin design with 15 fins in total. According to Orico, this provides up to 200% more surface area for effective heat dissipation. The black rubber pads provide a lift to the enclosure from the surface on which it will be placed. The enclosure is to be opened from this end as well. You can see a screw on the far end of the right side. You need to undo it to take off the aluminum cover.
Orico has provided a USB-C cable that conforms to 80Gbps speeds. Its length is 0.5m. The cable is thick but flexible.
You need to remove a screw (only one screw is visible, so it should not be an issue). This will release the back cover. The inside view is shown in the picture.
Orico has used a black PCB. You are not seeing any thermal pad on this side because the controller is located on the backside of the PCB. The PCB is secured to the main frame using 4x screws. This enclosure only supports 2280 format M.2 drives. You can’t use (technically) drives with a length lower than 2280.
I have removed the PCB, and you can see a pink color 2mm thick thermal pad. This pad contacts the controller on the PCB, and on the other end, it connects to the top aluminum layer. The Hydro Film is located on the opposite side of this top aluminum layer. Orico relies heavily on thermal pads to transfer the heat from the drive and PCB towards the top for dissipation.
This enclosure supports M-Key and M/B-Key PCIe/NVMe drives only, meaning you can’t use NGFF and SATA M.2 drives.
Orico has employed JMS583 from JMicron, which is a bridge controller between the USB host and the PCIe interface device. The choice of this low-speed bridge controller is a bit surprising.
Orico has employed the JHL9480 controller from Intel. This is the main game on the enclosure, providing high-speed connectivity to the host. It supports quad-port configuration. It supports PCIe Gen4x4. Take a note on this. This means, even if you use a PCIe Gen5 NVMe drive featuring blazing fast 14000MB/s speeds, it will scale down to the x4 link speed, substantially reducing the speed. This controller is capable of 80Gbps bandwidth and 120Gbps high-resolution displays.
The other chips used on the PCB include TXU0104, which is a four-channel uni-directional level shifter, CYPM1322-9 7BZXI for PD function with the capability of driving up to 240W, and winbond 25Q16JVN1Q, which is a 16M-bit (2MB) serial flash memory chip providing firmware update support where possible.
Setting up X50 Pro is a simple task.
You need to remove the back cover from the enclosure. Install the NVMe SSD in the socket as you do on the motherboard, place a thermal pad over the SSD after peeling the protective covers from both sides of the pad, and close the cover.
Editor’s Note: While I did not face any issues during the installation process, the rapid temperature hike during the operation suggests that the back aluminum cover might not have proper contact with the thermal pad. I did not feel anything sticky on the cover either. To check that I replaced the pad with a thicker one from Gelid, and it put some pressure on the back cover, confirming proper contact.
The below-mentioned test build is used:
We have used the following software:
Microsoft Windows 11 24H2 is used for the testing.
I have used the following NVMe SSDs for this testing:
In case you are wondering why, three Gen4 drives, two of these drives (Biwin and Netac) are DRAM-less editions, whereas the XPG SSD has a dedicated cache chip. During testing, I observed write speeds suffering on the DRAMLess drive (Biwin). To verify this, I put another DRAMless drive to the test and observed the same behavior. Then I used a drive with a DRAM chip, and the write speeds were ok. I will show that below in the test result.
Also Read: TerraMaster D1 SSD Enclosure Review: A Rugged DIY Portable SSD Enclosure – EnosTech.com
I have used a PCIe Gen5 drive for all tests unless mentioned in the results. Even if you use a PCIe Gen5 drive, it will operate in Gen4x4 mode, as confirmed using Crystal Disk Info. Sorry, I did not take a picture of that; otherwise, I would have shown it here.
The first test result is from the PCIe Gen5 drive from Biwin. This drive is rated for up to 14000MB/s sequential read speed and 13000MB/s sequential write speed. Random read speed is up to 2000K IOPS, whereas the random write speeds are up to 1600K IOPS.
As you can see, this drive did achieve over 6000MB/s in sequential read and 5800MB/s in sequential write departments, confirming the rated speeds for this enclosure by Orico. However, random read and write speeds in every category are low.
The above is a test run on Biwin NV7400, which has a rated read speed of up to 7450MB/s and write speed of 6500MB/s. Its random read and write speeds are 1000K IOPS and 900K IOPS. You can see that write speeds are struggling regardless if I enabled the Caching feature from the Device Manager or not.
To confirm this behavior, I installed the Netac NI7000-Q 2TB drive in the enclosure and tested it again. It produced the same result. This drive has rated sequential read and write speeds of 7100MB/s and 6200MB/s. You can see a similar result to that from the Biwin NV7400 drive.
I installed the XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade 2TB NVMe drive in the enclosure and repeated the tests. Now, we have good results in the sequential read and write departments. This only concluded that this enclosure does not favor the DRAMLess drives.
The maximum read speed using the Gen5 drive 5.80GB/s in read and 5.48GB/s in write.
We have used Blackmagic Disk Benchmark as well. This is a critical benchmark from the point of view that it monitors the three video compression coders against multiple formats and checks if the drive in hand supports that format, and if it does, then at what speed.
Now, it is time for real-world use. For that, we have used DiskBench in multiple scenarios to check the real-world data transfer rates. We prepared a data set of mixed files and folders, including compressed files. My focus was on random speeds, hence I made sure to use a large number of small-sized files.
A 97GB-sized compressed file was copied to the drive. The file was then read from the DiskBench. The operation took 38.346 seconds at an average speed of 2490.024MB/s. This is somewhat acceptable performance.
Next, I copied the same compressed file from one folder to another on the same drive. The transfer rate was 1399.851MB/s and it took 1.136 minutes to complete this operation.
Next, we copied a folder of 610GB size containing multiple compressed files, sub-folders, and mixed files. The main folder was copied from the same drive to a destination drive on the same drive. The transfer rate was 1045.427 MB/s, and it took 9.974 minutes to complete this operation.
Overall, I was expecting a better performance given the higher link speed available for the data transfer on Thunderbolt 5.
This is the time when gamers are using NVMe SSDs for their games for faster loading. This is why we also test the game load times. This is done using the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Benchmark using High settings.
It took 11.866 seconds in total to load the game. This is a much higher load time compared to the usual load times of the PCIe Gen4x4 drives, ranging from 5 to 7 seconds depending on the configuration.
Sustained Speeds
I also wanted to see the behavior of the drive under continuous operations with no brake. I have tested the PCIe Gen5 and PCIe Gen4 drives with both options having a dedicated DRAM chip. CrystalDiskMark was set up to torture the drives with a continuous sequential 1M, Q8T1 configuration for read and write speeds. Each run was 18 minutes.
I will first show the result from the XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade 2TB.
The drive did well in the read department, operating at almost above the 5100MB/s mark with a few dips, which are still above the 5000MB/s. The drive reached 72°C during this operation.
Well, well, well! The drive struggled in the write department. It started good from 5100MB/s approximate, but then dropped down to the 1800MB/s mark. The maximum temperature was 74°C.
This shows the throttling in the write department using this enclosure.
Now, I will show the results from the Biwin Black Opal X570 4TB.
We have persistent performance in the read department where speeds remain between 6200 and 6240 MB/s.
The write department shows a persistent performance as well, with speeds above 5800MB/s for the most part. The temperature reached 84°C during the operation.
Well, the graph will say that speeds are consistent and persistent, hence indicating that the drive was able to sustain the continuous operation. You need to remember that this drive is already operating at 4×4 link speed, not 5×4. We are below half the rated speeds of 14000MB/s and 13000MB/s in sequential read and write speeds, respectively. Despite the 84°C temperature on the drive, there is no throttling because the drive is already operating at 57% reduced read speed and 55% reduced write speed under 4×4 mode. The real-world tests show a decent performance, which is not at the level of PCIe Gen4 drives if installed on the motherboard.
The maximum temperature on a PCIe Gen4x4 drive under continuous load was 74°C, and it was 84°C for the PCIe Gen5x4 drive (operating at Gen4x4).
Editor’s Note: The enclosure was hot to touch and to my surprise, it was retaining the heat more than it dissipates. It took hours for the enclosure to normalize the temperature at idle after testing without active cooling. But when I introduced a 120mm fan blowing some air at standard speed, the enclosure quickly normalized the temperature.
Thunderbolt brings more on the table taking the game up from Thunderbolt 4 like up to 240W PD compared to 100W PD on Thunderbolt 4, very high refresh rates of up to 540Hz for the gamers, 80Gbps bandwidth compared to 40 Gbps on the Thunderbolt 4, multiple 8K monitors compared to two 4K monitors on the Thunderbolt 4, Three 4K limited to 144Hz to two 4K limited to 60Hz on Thunderbolt 4 etc.
We have got our hands on the Thunderbolt 5 setup, enabling us to start testing Thunderbolt 5 and USB 4.0 V2-based devices, starting with one external/portable enclosure from Orico. It is an X50 Pro Thunderbolt 80Gbps enclosure capable of delivering sequential read speeds of up to 6000MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 5800MB/s (theoretically). This range of speeds falls under the PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSDs, and this is exactly what is possible with Thunderbolt 5, which was not possible before.
This enclosure supports M.2 NVMe SSDs in the 2280 form factor in M-Key and M/B-Key types. This means you can’t use NGFF and SATA M.2 interface drives in this enclosure. This enclosure is made of a single piece of aluminum material and has a dimension of 110x60x18.7mm. It is not a compact form.
The salient highlight is the silent operations since this enclosure does not have a built-in fan for active cooling; instead, it relies on what Orico has mentioned as a Hydro Film on the top side. This pad is attached to the upper side of the top aluminum layer. The inner side of the aluminum layer has a 2mm thick small size thermal pad contacting the controller on the black PCB. The lower side of the enclosure has a fin-style design offering more surface area for heat dissipation. This lower cover contacts the M.2 drive via a bundled thermal pad.
Speaking of the controller, this enclosure is powered by the Intel JHL9480 controller that supports a PCIe Gen4 x4 interface. It is capable of 80Gbps bandwidth and 120Gbps high-resolution displays. Orico has bundled an 80G-certified cable with a 0.5m length.
Now, coming to the performance of this enclosure, we have got mixed results. I started with the PCIe Gen4x4 drive from Biwin, which is NV7400 with good read and write speeds, but the write speeds were merely in the 2700MB/s range. I changed the drive to the XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade drive and repeated the tests. This time, the sequential speeds were within an acceptable margin. The difference between these two drives is that the Biwin SSD does not have a DRAM chip, whereas the XPG SSD has a dedicated DRAM chip.
To verify this, I installed the Netac NI7000-Q SSD in the enclosure and repeated the tests. The sequential write speeds were again in the 2700MB/s range, confirming that this enclosure somehow does not bode well with DRAM-Less drives. I settled on the Biwin Black Opal X570 Pro Gen5 drive for testing purposes. The rated sequential speeds of 6000MB/s and 5800MB/s are only possible with Gen5 drives. The Gen4 drives were below the rated speeds, though nothing significant.
The synthetic test results show a good performance, but our focus is on the real-world use scenario, and this is where this enclosure struggles. The 4K speeds are even way below the 4K random read/write speeds that you would get from the SSD installed on a motherboard. In our test of copying different-sized files and folders, this enclosure was operating below the 10Gbps mark and took more time to complete the testing.
Another key observation is the thermal performance of the enclosure. The PCIe Gen5 drive reached 84°C, and we all know that so far, we need active cooling for the Gen5 drives even on the motherboard. It did 74°C on the PCIe Gen4x4 drive, and it throttled crazy on the Gen4 drive when it comes to the write department.
This enclosure is a good way to bring a high-speed storage solution, but, in my opinion, Orico needs to come out with an active cooling solution for this enclosure.
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