Panel: EDSFF New and Upcoming Updates

A panel at the 2025 OCP Global Summit storage track on new and upcoming EDSFF (Enterprise and Datacenter SSD Form Factor) developments. Pure Storage's Peter Troy recounts the path from off-the-shelf U.2 SSDs to a 300TB U.2 long drive and a first E2 prototype; the panel then covers the newly ratified E2 high-capacity form factor (SFF-1042), a hybrid orthogonal cable-and-connector backplane solution from MOSE, and Anthony Constantine's review of the year's connector, cable and power spec changes. It closes with the next problems for EDSFF: standardizing SSD liquid cooling and preparing for PCIe 7.0.

Key Takeaways

• The E2 form factor was ratified in 2025 as SFF-1042: 64+ NAND placements, an 80W EDSFF connector, and a single PCB with a thermally optimized enclosure, enabling petabyte-class drives and 40-drive chassis.
• E2 answered a 2024 call to action for a unified high-capacity form factor at 128TB and above to prevent fragmentation, leveraging the best attributes of E1 and E3.
• Pure Storage ships an interim 300TB U.2 long drive and demonstrated a first P0 E2 prototype running IO via a Gen 4/5 by-four adapter, having designed E2 for 64 NAND packages, future 4-terabit dies, and big die stacks.
• MOSE's hybrid orthogonal solution routes high-speed signals through a cable so a cheap reusable 4-layer FR4 backplane carries only sideband, clock and power, supporting E1/E2/E3 from Gen 5 to Gen 7 by swapping only the cable.
• EDSFF power was redefined around the connector's real capability of 79.2W (six pins at 1.1A x 12V); the SFF-TA-1002 connector is shared with OCP NIC 3.0 and the orthogonal connector was extended to E2 and E3.
• The next problems are SSD liquid cooling, where an industry effort targets one backwards-compatible cold-plate solution per form factor (centered on E1.S 9.5), and PCIe 7.0 with its 32 GHz Nyquist signal-integrity challenges.