E2 Form Factor Emerges as Universal Standard for High-Density AI Storage

The New Storage Paradigm: E2 Form Factor Redefines Data Center Architecture

The 2025 Open Compute Project Summit witnessed a significant industry shift toward standardization as major technology companies converged around the E2 SSD form factor as the future foundation for high-density storage solutions. This emerging standard represents a crucial evolution in data center design, specifically engineered to meet the escalating demands of artificial intelligence workloads and massive-scale storage deployments.

Meta’s QLC Implementation and Storage Vision

Meta provided detailed insights into their pioneering QLC flash storage implementation during the summit, showcasing their Open Rack Frame version 3 (ORv3) architecture designed to achieve unprecedented storage density. Their collaboration with manufacturing partner Jabil has yielded a shelf reference design supporting 24 U.2 and U.2 long Direct Flash Modules, with the ambitious target of enabling more than 50 petabytes per rack., according to related news

Ross Stenfort from Meta positioned QLC flash modules as a strategic layer in the memory and storage hierarchy, situating them between TLC SSDs and traditional hard disk drives. This placement reflects the industry‘s recognition that different storage technologies serve complementary roles in modern data centers rather than competing for the same applications.

Industry Consortium Drives E2 Standardization

A distinguished panel featuring representatives from Pure Storage, Meta, Molex, and Micron provided comprehensive updates on SSD form factor evolution. Their collective experience in designing and shipping QLC drives has directly informed the development of the E2 standard, which aims to become the universal form factor for 128TB and higher capacity SSDs.

The E2 specification represents a significant engineering achievement, designed to support 64 NAND packages with a large flash controller and high DRAM memory on a single circuit board. This configuration operates at power levels exceeding 30W while maintaining thermal efficiency through optimized low-airflow cooling requirements., according to industry reports

Engineering Challenges and Thermal Management Solutions

Arthur Lai from Molex delved into the critical thermal management considerations for high-density storage modules, advocating for what he termed an “ortho hybrid solution” specifically optimized for dense rack installations. The thermal challenges become increasingly complex as performance requirements escalate toward Generation 7 specifications with power support exceeding 80W., according to technology insights

Anthony Constantine from Micron addressed both the progress made since the initial 2024 E2 specifications and future development directions, including advanced liquid cooling implementations. He emphasized the necessity of a unified form factor to support high-density data center applications, particularly in preparation for PCIe 7.0 implementations.

Advanced Memory Technologies for AI Workloads

Samsung’s presentation highlighted significant advances in high-bandwidth memory, with HBM4 and HBM4E demonstrating over 2X bandwidth increases compared to HBM3E alongside substantially improved energy efficiency. The company outlined a future where HBM customization will address diverse AI application requirements, moving beyond one-size-fits-all solutions.

Taeksang Song from Samsung also discussed, additional insights, their comprehensive memory portfolio evolution, including DDR5 innovations, RDIMM and MRDIMM developments, and emerging standards like LPDDR6. Particularly noteworthy was their introduction of processing-in-memory (PIM) technology with LPDDR5X-PIM, which promises substantial performance and energy efficiency improvements for AI inference workloads.

High-Bandwidth Flash and Storage-Class Memory Advances

SK hynix unveiled their AIN family of memory solutions specifically engineered for AI applications, including high-bandwidth flash developed in partnership with SanDisk. This technology represents a fundamental architectural shift, enabling NAND-based flash devices to operate at near-HBM performance levels while maintaining SSD-level storage capacities.

C.S. Kim from SK hynix explained that this highly parallel memory configuration breaks from conventional SSD architectures, potentially bridging the performance gap between traditional storage and memory subsystems in AI infrastructure.

Flexible Data Placement Extends SSD Lifespan

Another critical session addressed flexible data placement (FDP) as a methodology to mitigate write amplification factor (WAF) issues that can prematurely degrade QLC and TLC SSDs. Rory Bolt from Kioxia presented practical use cases demonstrating how separating temporary files and swap spaces from longer-lived data can significantly reduce write amplification, thereby extending SSD operational lifespan.

Kioxia showcased their latest enterprise and data center SSD offerings, including the LC9 Series Enterprise QLC SSDs, SD8 E1.S Data Center SSDs, and CD9P Series Data Center SSDs, reflecting the diverse performance and endurance requirements across different data center applications.

The Path Forward: Standardization Enables Innovation

The collective developments presented at the 2025 OCP Summit signal a maturing industry moving toward standardized solutions that enable rather than constrain innovation. The E2 form factor represents more than just a physical specification—it embodies a collaborative approach to solving the storage challenges posed by exponential data growth and increasingly demanding AI workloads.

As data centers continue to evolve toward higher densities and more specialized workloads, this standardization effort provides a stable foundation upon which companies can build differentiated solutions while maintaining interoperability and reducing total cost of ownership. The industry-wide alignment around the E2 form factor suggests that the era of proprietary storage solutions may be giving way to a more collaborative, standards-driven approach to data center innovation.

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