Kioxia announced to provide SSD for HPE SBC-2 program

Kioxia has announced its participation in the Spaceborne Computer-2 (SBC-2) program by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). As part of the program, Kioxia will provide flash memory for HPE Edgeline and HPE ProLiant servers to be used in scientific experiments on the International Space Station in a testing environment.

HPE’s Spaceborne Computer-2 is designed to execute various high-performance space computing tasks, including real-time image processing, deep learning, and scientific simulation, combining HPE’s edge computing solutions, including rugged and compact HPE Edgeline converged edge systems, and high-performance HPE ProLiant servers. Kioxia will provide RM series Value SAS and XG series NVMe SSDs for Spaceborne Computer-2’s corresponding solutions.

Kioxia said that it has been proven that data center-level computing processing can be performed under harsh space conditions, but it does require something special. The cooperation with HPE allows Kioxia to explore and research at the forefront of scientific discovery. Over the years, Kioxia has worked with HPE to create first-class storage solutions, providing higher performance and reliability, from mobile platforms to data centers, and the two companies will continue to play an important role in the growing space economy.

Ordinary enterprise-level storage solutions cannot be directly used for space missions and require rigorous testing and validation. Last year, Phison’s 8TB M.2 2280 SSD solution passed the flight qualification test required for Lonestar Data Holdings’ lunar data center mission and was selected by contractor Lonestar and its partner Skycorp for Lonestar’s lunar data center plan. This is not Phison’s first time associated with space missions, as its 8GB uSSD was used on the Mars rover perseverance.