AIC unveiled F2032-01-G6 JBOF storage system with 32 SSD bays, designed for Rubin-era key-value caching and inference optimization.

Storage infrastructure has emerged as a critical component of modern AI systems. While compute dominates headlines, data centers increasingly require high-capacity flash storage for key-value caching alongside their computational resources. At Computex, AIC unveiled the F2032-01-G6 (also designated F2032-G6), a 2U just-a-bunch-of-flash (JBOF) appliance designed specifically to address this need.

The F2032-01-G6 accommodates 32 PCIe Gen6 E3 SSDs, delivering up to 8PB of storage when equipped with 256TB drives—offering either 8PB capacity with QLC NAND or approximately 4PB with TLC NAND. The system supports both long (E3.L) and short (E3.S) form factors of the 7.5mm-thick E3 drives, with the server's front dominated by hot-swappable storage trays separated by thin vents for airflow management.

The F2032-01-G6 succeeds AIC's previous-generation F2026-01-G5, which operated on PCIe Gen5 technology and housed 26 2.5-inch U.2 bays. The new platform represents a comprehensive modernization across storage, I/O, and networking capabilities, bringing AIC closer to alignment with NVIDIA's Context Memory Storage (CMX) platform standard—designed for integration into Vera Rubin racks.

Internally, the system employs Broadcom's 144-lane PEX90144 PCIe Gen6 switch as its I/O backbone. Based on the architecture of its predecessor, AIC likely allocates two lanes per SSD to maximize capacity, with the PCIe Gen6 upgrade offsetting the bandwidth constraints of this configuration.

The F2032-01-G6 uses a dual-node architecture, each with independent power supplies and capacity for up to two network expansion devices—or optionally even GPUs. The system is controlled by NVIDIA BlueField-4 DPUs, which feature Grace CPUs, ConnectX-9 NICs with 800Gb Ethernet or InfiniBand connectivity, and PCIe Gen6 I/O. These DPUs function as the storage controllers and gateways for all SSD access. Supporting multiple DPUs in redundant pairs enables fully redundant operation—if one DPU or node fails, the appliance continues functioning.

AIC positions the F2032-01-G6 as the primary storage tier for key-value caches within NVIDIA's Context Memory Storage platform—NVIDIA's KV caching solution for Vera Rubin systems. The flexible architecture also supports broader applications including object storage, scale-out file systems, and flash storage tiering. As large-scale inference clusters increasingly require substantial KV caches positioned close to GPUs for performance, such JBOF servers are becoming standard infrastructure in AI data centers. AIC is well-positioned to capture market share, leveraging its expertise with PCIe Gen5 and BlueField-3 hardware to scale into the BlueField-4/Vera Rubin generation.