Deploying and scaling QLC Flash at Meta

At OCP Global Summit 2025, Meta Hardware Systems Engineers Madhavan Ravi and Jesse Koh announced Meta's first QLC flash storage server: a 2U ORv3 chassis with 24 front-accessible U.2-long drive slots supporting both standard NVMe SSDs and Pure Storage Direct Flash Modules. The server targets 32 MB/s per TB for read-heavy AI and data workloads and delivers over 50 petabytes per rack. Meta chose QLC as a power- and cost-efficient middle ground between HDD and TLC SSD, and is contributing the design to OCP via an OCP Inspired Specification developed with Jabil as the OEM partner.

Key Takeaways

• Meta's first QLC storage server is a 2U ORv3 chassis with 24 drive slots, launching with 75TB Pure Storage DFMs followed quickly by 128TB SSDs from multiple suppliers and 150TB DFMs; a full rack delivers >50 PB.
• The 32 MB/s per TB bandwidth target drives the server's architecture: 2x Sapphire Rapids, 16-channel DDR5, PCIe Gen5 x4 per drive, and 2x 200Gbps NIC slots (upgradeable to 2x 400Gbps for denser drives).
• Jabil was the OEM partner, adapting their EIA 19-inch design to the ORv3 21-inch form factor in eight months — landing the first QLC rack ahead of co-located GPU racks.
• Pure Storage's user-space FTL gives Meta flexibility to tune IU sizes and write coalescing on-the-fly; treating the server as a single large SSD enables 16+1 cross-drive RAID to reduce write amplification.
• Key future scaling challenges: two-socket CPUs already consume more power than all 24 drives (single-socket CPUs expected H2 2026); 2x 400Gbps NICs for 128TB drives approach full rack uplink capacity; E2 form factor preferred for next-gen to address thermal limits at 256TB U.2 / 300TB DFM densities.
• Meta is contributing its QLC-specific requirements to the OCP Datacenter NVMe SSD specification to shape industry standards for QLC adoption at scale.