SDF4385DAB01T Kioxia CD8P-R E3.S PCI-E 5.0 NVMe 2.0 Read Intensive SFF 1.92TB SSD

Kioxia SDF4385DAB01T CD8P-R E3.S Enterprise NVMe SSD

The Kioxia SDF4385DAB01T, part of the CD8P-R series, represents a pivotal advancement in enterprise storage, purpose-built for the demanding workloads of modern cloud data centers. As a 1.92TB E3.S form factor drive leveraging PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 2.0 interfaces, it delivers exceptional bandwidth and efficiency for read-intensive applications. The CD8P-R series embodies Kioxia's leadership in BiCS FLASH 3D TLC memory and enterprise controller technology, offering a balanced, reliable, and high-performance storage solution for server and storage system integrators.

Form Factor and Physical Interface: The E3.S Advantage

The adoption of the E3.S form factor is a defining characteristic of this storage category. As data centers evolve, the need for higher density and improved thermal management has driven the development of new drive form factors beyond the traditional U.2 and M.2.

E3.S (EDSFF E3) Form Factor Specifications

The SDF4385DAB01T E3.S form factor, standardized by the SSD Form Factor Work Group, is optimized for enterprise and data center environments. The Kioxia CD8P-R utilizes a 7.5mm (E3.S 1T) or 16.8mm (E3.S 2T) height profile, allowing for flexible configurations in 1U and 2U servers. Its elongated shape compared to U.2 drives enables superior airflow across the drive's surface, a critical factor for maintaining optimal operating temperatures under the high loads generated by PCIe 5.0 speeds. The form factor also supports hot-plug capability and includes a robust connector designed for high insertion cycles.

Kioxia CD8P-R Series Enterprise SSDs

The Kioxia CD8P-R series, exemplified by the model SDF4385DAB01T, is a purpose-built product line targeting read-intensive applications in the heart of the data center. These drives leverage Kioxia's vertically integrated manufacturing, from BiCS FLASH™ 3D TLC memory to in-house controllers and firmware, ensuring reliability, performance consistency, and seamless integration into enterprise ecosystems. The "R" in CD8P-R stands for Read-Intensive, indicating an endurance and performance profile optimized for workloads where data retrieval operations vastly outnumber write operations, a common scenario in cloud infrastructure, content delivery networks, and large-scale databases.

Thermal Design Power (TDP) and Cooling Implications

With PCIe 5.0's increased performance comes greater heat output. The E3.S form factor is inherently designed to dissipate this heat more effectively than smaller form factors. The Kioxia CD8P-R 1.92TB drive operates within a defined power envelope, and its physical design, including the placement of NAND packages and controller, works in concert with system-level airflow to prevent thermal throttling and ensure consistent performance. This makes the drive category ideal for high-density, all-flash arrays and hyper-scale server nodes where cooling capacity is a precious resource.

Performance Architecture: PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 2.0 Unleashed

At the heart of the Kioxia CD8P-R's capabilities is its dual-port PCI Express 5.0 interface and compliance with the NVMe 2.0 protocol specification. This combination represents the current pinnacle of storage interconnect technology for enterprise servers.

PCIe 5.0 Dual-Port Functionality

PCIe 5.0 doubles the bandwidth per lane compared to PCIe 4.0, delivering up to 32 GT/s (Giga Transfers per second). The Kioxia SDF4385DAB01T leverages a x4 lane configuration, providing a theoretical maximum bandwidth of approximately 16 GB/s. More importantly for enterprise availability, the drive features dual-port functionality. This allows the SSD to be connected to two separate host systems or root complexes simultaneously, providing redundant paths for data access. This is a critical feature for high-availability clusters and mission-critical applications where a single point of failure is unacceptable.

NVMe 2.0 Protocol Features

The SDF4385DAB01T NVMe 2.0 protocol suite introduces a modular architecture and several enhancements beneficial for enterprise environments. While maintaining backward compatibility, it includes improvements in zoning, endurance management, and copy commands. For the CD8P-R category, this translates to more efficient management of the TLC NAND, better provisioning for virtualization and multi-tenancy use cases, and standardized commands that reduce write amplification—a key factor in extending drive lifespan in write-intensive scenarios, even within a read-optimized drive.

Sustained Sequential and Random Read Performance

As a Read-Intensive drive, the Kioxia CD8P-R is engineered to deliver exceptional and consistent read throughput. While exact specifications vary by capacity, drives in this category are capable of sequential read speeds exceeding 12,000 MB/s and random read IOPS in the millions. This performance level is tailored for data caching, content delivery networks (CDNs), web serving, and database query operations where read access patterns dominate. The high-speed interface ensures low latency, accelerating application response times.

NAND Media and Endurance: TLC Optimized for Enterprise Reliability

The choice of storage media is fundamental to a drive's performance, endurance, and cost profile. The Kioxia CD8P-R series utilizes the company's latest generation of BiCS FLASH 3D TLC (Triple-Level Cell) NAND.

BiCS FLASH 3D TLC Technology

Kioxia's proprietary BiCS FLASH is a charge trap flash (CTF) architecture stacked vertically in multiple layers. For the CD8P-R, this means high-density, cost-effective storage with the reliability required for enterprise workloads. TLC NAND stores three bits per cell, offering a favorable balance between density, endurance, and performance. Kioxia's advanced manufacturing processes ensure high integrity and data retention characteristics, which are managed by a sophisticated suite of error correction and wear-leveling algorithms.

Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) and Terabytes Written (TBW) Endurance Ratings

Endurance is quantified by DWPD and TBW. A read-intensive drive like the 1.92TB CD8P-R is typically rated for a lower DWPD (e.g., 0.5 to 1 DWPD) compared to a mixed-use or write-intensive drive.The TBW rating provides the total lifetime bytes written guarantee. This endurance profile is perfectly matched to its target applications, ensuring a long service life while maintaining an optimal price point for read-centric tasks.

Power Loss Protection and Data Integrity

Enterprise drives must guarantee data integrity in the event of an unexpected power loss. The Kioxia CD8P-R incorporates robust power loss protection (PLP) circuits, typically consisting of capacitors that provide hold-up energy. This allows the drive's controller to complete any in-flight write operations and commit data from volatile buffers to the non-volatile NAND, preventing corruption. This feature is non-negotiable for maintaining data consistency in server and storage systems.

Use Cases and Deployment Scenarios

The specific performance and form factor attributes of the Kioxia CD8P-R E3.S drive make it an ideal candidate for several key data center deployment models.

High-Density Scale-Out Storage Servers

In hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) and software-defined storage (SDS) platforms, density is paramount. The E3.S form factor allows server OEMs to pack more drives—and therefore more capacity and IOPS—into a single 1U or 2U chassis. The CD8P-R's read-intensive nature is perfect for storing frequently accessed data, VM boot images, or serving as a tier for active datasets, while its efficiency helps keep power and cooling costs manageable at scale.

Cloud Service Provider (CSP) Data Caching Layer

Major cloud platforms deploy vast fleets of servers for caching popular content, database indexes, and machine learning training datasets. The low latency and high random read performance of the PCIe 5.0 NVMe CD8P-R drive significantly reduce data access times, improving overall service performance for end-users. The dual-port feature also provides the path redundancy required for CSPs to meet strict service level agreements (SLAs).

NVMe-MI and Telemetry

The Kioxia SDF4385DAB01T CD8P-R supports NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI) over SMBus or PCIe Vendor Defined Messages. This allows out-of-band management by a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC), enabling health monitoring, firmware updates, and drive lifecycle management even if the host operating system is unresponsive. Furthermore, the drive provides comprehensive telemetry data, including temperature, power consumption, media wear, and error logs, which can be ingested by monitoring tools for predictive analytics and proactive maintenance.

Standardized Firmware and Ecosystem Validation

Kioxia ensures its enterprise SSDs undergo rigorous validation with major server platform vendors. The firmware on the CD8P-R includes features like sanitize (for secure data erasure), temperature throttling, and advanced error logging. Compatibility with leading operating systems (Windows Server, Linux distributions, VMware ESXi) and enterprise management suites is a cornerstone of this product category, ensuring smooth integration into existing data center workflows and procurement channels.

Security Features

Data security is paramount. This drive category supports the NVMe Sanitize command, which provides a fast and cryptographically secure method of rendering all user data irrecoverable upon drive decommissioning or repurposing. Additionally, support for TCG Opal 2.0 and Pyrite standards enables self-encrypting drive (SED) functionality. Data is encrypted at rest with hardware-based AES-256 encryption, protecting against physical theft of drives from the data center with minimal performance overhead.