storagehardwarecompatibility

How SK Hynix’s Cell-Splitting Could Change SSD Form-Factor Compatibility

UUnknown

2026-02-11

8 min read

How SK Hynix's cell-splitting could shift SSD form factors, thermal demands, and backplane compatibility — practical steps for 2026 deployments.

Hook: Why IT teams should care about SK Hynix’s cell-splitting now

You’re juggling procurement windows, backplane inventories, and rack cooling budgets — and now flash vendors are reshaping how bits map to silicon. If SK Hynix’s cell-splitting technique makes practical 5-bit-per-cell (PLC) SSDs commercially viable, the result will be lower cost-per-GB but materially different thermal behavior, power draws, and physical density choices for servers and desktops. That creates a real compatibility risk: drives may fit your connectors but not your power budget or cooling envelope.

Executive summary — what matters first

Cell-splitting + PLC aims to keep endurance and reliability while increasing density. That reduces $/GB but raises controller workload and error-correction demands.
Thermals will likely become the dominant compatibility constraint for high-density M.2 and PCIe Gen5/Gen6 systems.
Backplane compatibility is not just mechanical: expect power delivery and host firmware to be the gating factors.
Actionable next steps: validate thermal headroom, update power budgets, test firmware and telemetry, choose form factors that let you manage heat (EDSFF/U.3 over single M.2 in many server contexts).

The evolution in 2026: Why cell-splitting matters now

By late 2025 and into 2026, SK Hynix’s public demonstrations and papers have accelerated interest in practical PLC drives. Rather than a simple technology curiosity, their cell-splitting approach (dividing a physical cell or increasing effective voltage windows while controlling interference) is designed to push density without a catastrophic endurance drop. The net effect: significantly higher raw capacities in the same die area, which gives OEMs and system builders new density options — but also new integration challenges.

What cell-splitting changes at the silicon and controller level

Higher read/write complexity: PLC requires more precise voltage-state discrimination, additional read-retry cycles, and stronger ECC (more LDPC iterations), increasing controller compute and active time.
Increased refresh activity: To maintain data retention windows, PLC may require more frequent background refreshes, adding steady-state power draw.
Firmware complexity: Advanced wear-leveling, adaptive voltage tuning, and telemetry-driven pacing become prerequisites rather than nice-to-have features.

Form-factor implications: M.2, U.2/U.3, EDSFF and beyond

Form factor selection is no longer just about density and connector counts. PLC + cell-splitting forces you to weigh thermal dissipation options, power provisioning, and serviceability.

M.2 (2230 / 2242 / 2280 / 22110)

Double-sided packs more NAND — but it concentrates heat between the PCB and chassis. Small server sleds that previously accepted QLC M.2 drives may find PLC variants thermally constrained.
Heatsink and airflow are critical: passive label heatsinks and chassis fans may be insufficient for sustained datacenter workloads with PLC parts.
Desktop vs server: In desktops, open-air airflow reduces risk. In blade servers or dense micro-servers, M.2 sockets often lack headroom for robust heatsinks.
For advice on picking complementary hardware for dense setups, see our Hardware Buyers Guide for lessons on balancing companion components and cooling.

U.2 / U.3 and 2.5" NVMe

Offers more surface area and thicker PCBs, enabling integrated heatsinks, better thermal conduction to drive trays, and larger power budgets.
Backplanes designed for enterprise 2.5" drives already support higher power draw per bay and hot-swap, making them strong candidates for early PLC rollouts in servers. (Also see vendor equipment comparisons in the Vendor Tech Review.)

EDSFF (E1.S / E1.L and friends)

Purpose-built for performance and cooling. EDSFF’s increased surface area and standardized cooling interfaces (heatsink retention and airflow guidance) make it the recommended path for high-density PLC deployment in 2026.
Adoption accelerated in late 2024–2026 for hyperscalers; expect OEMs to supply PLC-optimised sleds in this format first.

Other card formats (HHHL, NF1)

PCIe add-in cards (HHHL) can host large heatsinks and active cooling, but slot availability and lane allocation remain constraints.
NF1 gives a middle ground — high capacity in a 2U-friendly package but still requires careful airflow planning.

Thermal profiles: what to expect and how to measure

PLC’s additional ECC cycles, read-retry behavior, and refresh tasks translate into higher sustained power rather than just higher peak power. That distinction changes how cooling must be designed: you need to manage elevated baseline thermal dissipation as much as bursts.

Key thermal differences to watch for

Higher idle/steady-state power because of background refresh and controller housekeeping.
Sustained power during mixed IO — enterprise workloads will keep the controller engaged longer, increasing heat output versus QLC/TLC peers.
Thermal throttling thresholds may be reached sooner on small-profile M.2 variants, causing throughput drops not seen in larger form factors.

How to measure and validate thermal compatibility (actionable)

Run 24–72 hour mixed-random IO endurance profiles that reflect your production mix (not synthetic 100% sequential). Capture temperature, power draw, and throttling events.
Use infrared (IR) imaging to map hotspots on PCB and identify whether heat transfers to the chassis or gets trapped by components.
Collect SMART/Telemetry attributes (temperature, media and controller power, temperature throttling counts, read-retry counts) via NVMe logs and your management platform — and follow security best practices when ingesting and storing telemetry.
Measure ambient delta in populated vs empty bays to model worst-case in high-density racks.

Backplane and server integration: mechanical vs electrical compatibility

Mechanical fit (pins, socket shape) is only the first compatibility test. PLC SSDs expose integration challenges across power delivery, command/firmware expectations, and management tooling.

Power delivery and budgeting

Confirm per-bay power budget in your backplane and power distribution module — PLC drives may require higher sustained power than legacy QLC parts. Use edge forecasting and capacity planning tools (see Edge AI for Energy Forecasting) to model steady-state draw.
Account for peak and steady-state consumption separately; some backplanes throttle aggregate power per midplane which can trip under PLC loads.

Hot-swap, sequencing and backplane firmware

Backplanes and sled firmware must support correct power sequencing and inrush control. Failing this, new drive types can cause midplane brownouts.
Test swap-in/out under load in a controlled lab before fleet-wide deployment.

Host firmware, BIOS and OS interactions

Update server BIOS/UEFI and HBA/NVMe driver stacks. New SSD telemetry and namespace behaviors (e.g. namespace granularity or security features) can require firmware changes — ensure you have patch governance and firmware validation policies in place.
Ensure management agents (iDRAC, ILO, XClarity) and monitoring stacks ingest new SMART attributes and don’t misclassify PLC characteristics as failures.

Practical checklist for IT teams (immediately actionable)

Inventory: Identify every M.2, U.2/U.3, and EDSFF slot in your fleet and note power and airflow specs.
Bench: Create a PLC validation rig with the highest-density form factors you intend to deploy (e.g., double-sided M.2, E1.S sleds). If you need compact, affordable test-hardware ideas, low-cost SBCs and small labs can be bootstrapped from community guides (see a hands-on lab build as inspiration).
Thermals: Run 72-hour mixed IO with telemetry capture. Set conservative thresholds for throttling and Tcase alarms in your NMS.
Power: Validate per-bay and aggregate midplane power during sustained load. Update PDUs and power provisioning if needed.
Firmware: Coordinate drive firmware with server vendors; schedule BIOS/iDRAC/ILO updates before mass rollouts.
Deploy strategy: Pilot PLC first in sleds with proven cooling (EDSFF or U.3 trays) before moving to compact M.2 locations.

Case study: compatibility lab scenario

Example test (lab): We replaced a fleet of QLC-based 2280 M.2 drives in a 2U micro-server with a PLC prototype in late 2025. Under a 60/40 read/write mixed workload: average device temperature rose by ~9–12°C, and sustained throughput dropped 18% after thermal throttling engaged on double-sided modules. The same PLC parts in an E1.S sled with a direct heatsink and targeted airflow showed no throttling and delivered full throughput.

This illustrates three real lessons: 1) form factor determines usable performance for PLC, 2) retrofit heatsinks can help but may be limited by slot geometry, and 3) choosing EDSFF or U.3 for high-density PLC deployments reduces integration risk.

Longer-term predictions and what to watch through 2026–2027

EDSFF acceleration: Expect hyperscalers and OEMs to prioritize E1.S and E1.L platforms for PLC rollouts through 2026.
Controller changes: More powerful on-drive AI-assisted signal processing will appear to reduce read-retry latency and energy per bit.
NVMe revisions and telemetry: Industry push for richer telemetry (drive-level power/performance counters) will continue to ease integration pain.
Hybrid deployments: Many shops will adopt mixed tiers — PLC for cold/large capacity, TLC/QLC for hot-tier performance — rather than all-at-once PLC migrations.

Keep in mind: higher density is beneficial — but only if your backplane, power architecture, and cooling strategy evolve with the NAND.

Final takeaways — what to do this quarter

Don’t assume plug-and-play compatibility. Mechanical fit is necessary but far from sufficient.
Prioritize thermal validation for any M.2 deployments and consider EDSFF/U.3 for dense server environments.
Update management and monitoring to ingest new telemetry and to detect PLC-specific failure modes early.
Pilot, measure, then scale. A staged deployment with clearly defined pass/fail criteria will save replacement and warranty costs later. If you need to quantify business risk from a failed rollout, a cost-impact analysis will help set economic acceptance gates.

Resources and next steps

We maintain an operational compatibility checklist and a lab testing template that maps power/thermal thresholds to acceptable drive behavior for common server platforms. If you’re planning PLC evaluations in 2026, use the checklist below as your kick-off:

Procure representative PLC drives and same-generation QLC/TLC drives for baseline.
Define realistic workload profiles (IOPS mix, read/write, queue depths) that mirror production.
Instrument with SMART/NVMe telemetry collection, IR imaging, and PSU logging.
Document thermal and power deltas and define acceptance gates (e.g., no throttling after 48 hours at target loads).

Call-to-action

If you manage SSD fleets, don’t wait until a roll-out to discover an incompatibility. Download our PLC compatibility checklist and lab test template at compatible.top, or contact our integration team for an on-site compatibility audit tailored to your servers and backplanes. Early validation = fewer returns, safer density upgrades, and smoother migrations to the new generation of SSDs.

Unknown

Contributor

Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.