Uncovering Microsoft Z1000 Solid State Drive: Mysterious CNEXLabs Master Control Exposed, Performance Exposed

Through the label information, we learned that this Z1000 is an engineering sample with a capacity of 960GB, produced on May 18, 2020, powered by DC 3.3V, and a nominal power consumption of 15W.

According to reports, the solid-state drive supports the NVMe 1.2 protocol. On the opposite side of the PCB in the external DRAM cache of Z1000, we found empty solder pads of the same size. Combined with multiple other empty solder pads, we speculate that the Z1000 series may also include larger capacity models.

It is interesting that the controller of this solid-state drive comes from CNEXLabs, a private enterprise established in 2013, focusing on enterprise level solid-state drive control business. Considering that the Z1000 adopts the M.2 22110 specification, this solid-state drive is likely to be a product for the enterprise market.

Collaborating with independent small controlling enterprises to develop enterprise level solid-state drives is not a rare phenomenon. Korean controlling enterprise FADU previously claimed to have received orders from Meta, which further proves the trend of cooperation between large technology enterprises and small controlling enterprises.