Second 246TB SSD confirmed for 2026 as Micron unveils 122TB 6600 ION PCIe Gen 5 SSD in a bid to replace hard disk drives in data centers

• The 6600 ION delivers up to 88PB per rack, and at 122TB, Micron is scaling SSDs far beyond typical limits
• With 36 SSDs in 2U, Micron enables 4.42PB in a compact server configuration
• Micron projects daily energy savings equivalent to powering 124 U.S. homes with 2EB installations

Micron has announced a major expansion of its storage lineup with a new entry in the high-capacity SSD space, the 6600 ION.

The company says this PCIe Gen5-based SSD is now available in a 122TB configuration and is expected to scale up to 245TB in early 2026.

The company is positioning its new model as a direct challenge to hard disk drives in hyperscale and enterprise data centers, aiming to offer greater efficiency in terms of power consumption, physical space, and storage density.

Hard drive alternative for data-heavy environments

The 6600 ION is part of a broader portfolio that also includes the 9650 PCIe Gen6 and the 7600 SSD for low-latency tasks.

All three products are built on Micron’s G9 NAND, which the company claims enable significant performance and capacity gains.

“With the industry’s first PCIe Gen6 SSD, industry-leading capacities and the lowest latency mainstream SSD—all powered by our first-to-market G9 NAND—Micron is not just setting the pace; we are redefining the frontier of data center innovation,” said Jeremy Werner, senior vice president and general manager of Micron’s Core Data Center Business Unit

Micron claims the 6600 ION can deliver up to 88PB per rack which is huge considering that many of its rivals are still below 40PB per rack.

With support for up to 36 E3.S SSDs in a 2U server, the design enables up to 4.42PB per server.

“With Supermicro’s broadest selection of Petascale storage optimized servers supporting up to 36 E3.S SSDs, the Micron 6600 ION enables up to 4.42PB per 2U server delivering the highest density and power efficiency for large capacity AI workloads,” said Michael McNerney, senior vice president, Marketing and Network Security at Supermicro.

The 6600 ION reportedly delivers a 67% density improvement over previous alternatives.

Micron suggests this could become the largest SSD available commercially, allowing data centers to store exabytes of information with improved energy efficiency.

However, its role in actually replacing hard drives will depend on long-term endurance, cost-per-terabyte economics, and compatibility across platforms.

That said, the 6600 ION reportedly uses only 1 watt per 4.9TB, a figure that undercuts the power draw of traditional HDD arrays.

Micron projects that installations scaling to 2 exabytes could result in daily energy savings equivalent to powering 124 U.S. homes.

These claims point to significant operational savings, but large-scale deployment will depend on more than just power metrics.

As Micron eyes leadership in fastest SSD and largest SSD categories, the actual shift from HDDs will rely on sustained performance under pressure and meaningful cost advantages across the board.

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