Breaking the Storage-Compute Boundary: CrossChip SmartStorage Series Debuts
On July 28, 2026, CrossChip, a world-leading provider of flash memory and storage solutions, officially unveiled the new SmartStorage series of computational SSDs at the 2026 Storage Technology Summit in Silicon Valley. This product integrates an AI inference engine into the storage controller chip for the first time, marking a key step for storage devices from being mere data warehouses to intelligent processing units. CrossChip CEO Martin Chen said: "The SmartStorage series redefines the value of storage—it no longer passively saves data, but actively analyzes, filters, and accelerates data flow at the storage location."
Technical Architecture: Tensor Acceleration Unit and Compute-in-Storage Design
The SmartStorage CS3500 series adopts CrossChip's self-developed DualCore controller architecture, comprising a main control core and an independent Tensor Acceleration Engine (TAE). The TAE is based on RISC-V architecture and integrates 16 programmable neural processing units, supporting INT8 and FP16 inference with a peak computing power of 4 TOPS. In terms of storage media, this SSD uses CrossChip's seventh-generation 3D NAND flash (based on charge-trapping technology) with 320 layers, achieving sequential read speeds up to 14 GB/s and sequential write speeds of 10 GB/s. Combined with the NVMe 2.0 protocol and PCIe 5.0 x4 interface, SmartStorage achieves access latency as low as 2μs.
On the software stack, CrossChip provides the SmartFlow SDK, allowing developers to easily deploy models using mainstream frameworks such as TensorFlow Lite and ONNX Runtime. The SDK includes a pre-trained model library for image classification, object detection, and time-series data processing, and supports custom model import. In addition, SmartStorage supports dynamic partitioning of computing tasks between the host side and device side to achieve load balancing.
Application Scenarios: Edge Intelligence and Real-Time Data Processing
The main target market for the SmartStorage series is edge computing scenarios, especially latency- and bandwidth-sensitive applications. In the field of smart security, network cameras equipped with SmartStorage can run person detection algorithms directly on the SSD, uploading only alert metadata to the cloud, thereby reducing network traffic by over 90%. In autonomous driving scenarios, in-vehicle storage devices can perform real-time scene classification while writing data, filtering out redundant frames, effectively alleviating the storage bandwidth bottleneck of onboard computing units. For industrial IoT, SmartStorage can execute sensor data anomaly detection locally, quickly responding to production line failures.
CrossChip Vice President of Product Marketing Sarah Li demonstrated a real use case at the launch: in a smart traffic system with 32 4K video streams, using SmartStorage CS3500 reduced event response latency from an average of 320 milliseconds to 64 milliseconds, while cutting central server load by 75%. She noted: "Edge nodes are becoming increasingly 'thick'; SmartStorage makes the storage system the first stop for data processing."
Market Significance and Competitive Landscape
Computational SSDs are not a new concept; vendors such as Samsung and Kioxia have previously launched related products, but mostly focused on big data analytics. CrossChip targets edge scenarios with AI inference as the entry point, optimizing for power consumption and cost sensitivity: the typical power consumption for the 8TB capacity version is only 12W, a 45% reduction compared to traditional solutions. Industry analysis firm TechInsights points out that in 2026, the global data processing storage market (including computational SSDs, smart HBAs, etc.) is expected to reach $12 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 38%. Leveraging its deep accumulation in 3D NAND and this architectural innovation, CrossChip expects to capture 15%-20% of this market segment within two years.
After the launch, CrossChip's stock rose 4.2% on the same day, and several investment banks raised their target stock prices. Morgan Stanley analysts stated in a research report: "The SmartStorage series transforms storage devices from cost centers to value creation centers, opening up growth space for CrossChip far beyond the traditional flash memory market."
Product Roadmap and Availability
CrossChip also announced the product roadmap for the SmartStorage series: the CS5000 series for cloud data centers, supporting CXL memory pooling, will launch in Q4 2026; the CS6000 series based on MRAM cache, further reducing write latency, will launch in H1 2027. The CS3500 series is currently providing engineering samples to early partners, with mass production expected in September 2026. The 1TB version is priced at $189, and the 8TB version at $999.
As AI rapidly penetrates the edge, the launch of CrossChip SmartStorage comes at the right time. When data generation speed exceeds network bandwidth and computing performance, completing preliminary processing in storage becomes an indispensable link. CrossChip's step may write a new footnote for storage architecture in the next decade.
