Western Digital releases WD Blue SN5000 NVMe SSD

The new WD Blue SN5000 offers up to 4TB storage, double that of the previous generation, and is 24% faster as well.

Western Digital reasons that as AI-enabled applications continue to generate larger media assets, high-performance and higher capacity data storage is increasingly becoming more essential.

The company says the new card is strategically aligned to Stages 4 and 6 of what it calls the AI Data Cycle to equip users with advanced performance driven storage solutions that maximize content creation workflows within AI environments.

This is an interesting concept. WD introduced the six-stage AI Data Cycle framework earlier this month, saying that it defines the optimal storage mix for AI workloads at scale. The reasoning goes that AI models operate in a continuous loop of data consumption and generation – processing text, images, audio and video among other data types while simultaneously producing new unique data. As AI technologies become more advanced, data storage systems must deliver the capacity and performance to support the computational loads and speeds required for large, sophisticated models while managing immense volumes of data. Western Digital says it has strategically aligned its Flash and HDD product and technology roadmaps to the storage requirements of each critical stage of the cycle.

Anyway, moving on, what all this means is that the new SSD provides:
• Up to 4TB - 2x more storage capacity for content over the previous generation
• Accelerates workflows and boosts productivity with PCIe Gen4 speeds up to 5,500MB/s - a 24% improved performance over the previous generation
• Western Digital nCache 4.0 technology for blistering fast folder and file copies
• Multitask heavy projects smoother with NVMe
• Boost drafting and rendering stages with up to 1,200 TBW endurance

The WD Blue SN5000 NVMe SSD is available now at Western Digital, with
broader availability expected in early July. It starts at £275.