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On June 21, 2017, Memblaze announced the PBlaze5 700 and 900 families of enterprise PCIe NVMe SSDs. The launch combined enterprise-level 3D TLC (also called 3D eTLC) NAND with capacities up to 11 TB, sequential read performance of up to 6 GB/s, and more than 1 million 4 KB random-read IOPS. These are historical PCIe 3.0 specifications, not specifications for a current product release.
The original announcement is preserved in Memblaze’s PR Newswire release, with contemporaneous technical coverage from AnandTech.
What Memblaze launched
The PBlaze5 launch covered two related product families rather than one identical drive:
| Family | Target deployment | Endurance positioning |
|---|---|---|
| PBlaze5 700 | Hyperscale data centers | Lower endurance tier in the documented 700-series specifications |
| PBlaze5 900 | Mission-critical enterprise applications | Launch material positioned applicable configurations at up to 3 drive writes per day for five years |
Both were offered in 2.5-inch U.2 and HHHL add-in-card form factors and supported NVMe 1.2a. AnandTech identified the controller as Microsemi’s Flashtec PM8607 NVMe2016, with features including LDPC error correction, AES-256 support and dual-port capability.
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What the headline numbers actually mean
| Claim | Qualification |
|---|---|
| Up to 6 GB/s | Maximum sequential read using 128 KB transfers on higher-capacity configurations; not every SKU or workload |
| More than 1 million IOPS | 4 KB random read under specified enterprise test conditions; a cited 700-series table lists up to about 1.042 million sustained read IOPS |
| Up to 11 TB | Maximum user capacity; documented 700-series capacities include 2 TB, 3.6 TB, 4 TB, 8 TB and 11 TB |
| About 90/15 µs | Typical vendor-reported read/write latency, dependent on test setup and workload |
| Up to about 210,000 IOPS | Random write performance in the cited 700-series specification, far below the headline read result |
The 6 GB/s figure is associated with PCIe 3.0 configurations: U.2 models use PCIe 3.0 x4, while HHHL cards use PCIe 3.0 x8. Host lanes, firmware, capacity, queue depth, thermal conditions and workload can all reduce observed performance. These numbers should not be compared directly with modern PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 drives without accounting for the interface generation.
Why “enterprise 3D TLC” mattered
Memblaze was not presenting ordinary consumer TLC placed in a server. The enterprise designation covered the complete storage platform: NAND qualification, controller firmware, error correction, power-loss protection, endurance validation and data-path safeguards. The PBlaze5 documentation lists power-failure protection, hot-plug support, AES-256 encryption, CLI management and an in-box operating-system driver. It also lists an uncorrectable bit-error rate of fewer than one sector error per 1017 bits read for the documented C700 configuration.
Those features do not make “3D TLC” a reliability guarantee by itself. Endurance, error rates and protection depend on the exact model and qualification conditions. The 700-series document specifies 1 DWPD for its documented C700 configuration, whereas the launch release’s 3 DWPD/ five-year statement applies to the relevant 900-series positioning.
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Why 11 TB was significant in 2017
An 11 TB NVMe SSD was unusually large for a 2017 enterprise PCIe platform. Higher capacity could reduce the number of drives, server nodes, slots, cabling and rack space needed for a given dataset. The real infrastructure result still depended on redundancy, write workload, cooling, endurance requirements and procurement cost; a larger device is not automatically the cheapest or safest design.
U.2 versus HHHL installation
U.2
The 2.5-inch U.2 version fits a compatible server backplane and cable and uses PCIe 3.0 x4. The chassis must provide the correct connector, lane wiring, BIOS support and airflow.
HHHL add-in card
The half-height, half-length card plugs into a suitable PCIe slot and uses PCIe 3.0 x8 in the cited configurations. Check slot clearance, auxiliary power, lane availability and cooling before installation.
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- Up to 6,000MB/s read, 4,000MB/s write
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- 5-year limited warranty
Neither form factor should be assumed to be plug-and-play in a desktop. NVMe boot support, PCIe bifurcation or backplane wiring may be platform-specific.
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Where the drives fit
- High-throughput databases and search or indexing systems
- Hyperscale, cloud, virtualization and software-defined-storage platforms
- CDN workloads and mission-critical enterprise applications
- Servers requiring hot-plug operation, power-loss protection or encrypted data paths
The million-IOPS figure describes read-heavy testing. Mixed workloads and sustained writes can behave very differently, and the documented 700-series random-write ceiling is roughly 210,000 IOPS.
How PBlaze5 evolved after the launch
Memblaze later replaced the original 700/900 generation with newer PBlaze5 families. The 910/916 moved to 64-layer NAND and reached up to 15.36 TB while retaining the 6 GB/s and 1-million-read-IOPS class in vendor specifications. The 920 used 96-layer NAND, with up to 7.68 TB, up to 5.9 GB/s read bandwidth and up to 970,000 read IOPS. These later figures describe later products, not the June 2017 launch. See Memblaze’s 910/916 page and 920 page.
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Buying a legacy PBlaze5 in 2026
No current official public price or retail stock listing is established for the PBlaze5. Surviving original units are therefore most likely used, surplus or channel inventory. Memblaze’s current site emphasizes newer PBlaze7 products; enterprise buyers should use Memblaze’s current product site or its company contact information for qualification and channel guidance.
Checks before purchasing a used drive
- Confirm the exact model, capacity, endurance tier and U.2 or HHHL form factor.
- Verify the server backplane, cable, PCIe lane width, slot power and BIOS NVMe support.
- Request firmware version, secure-erase status, SMART/NVMe health data, total bytes written and percentage used.
- Check cooling and airflow under sustained load.
- Get a return period and establish whether any warranty is transferable.
- Validate dual-port support with the intended host platform and storage software if high availability requires it.
Common failure symptoms
- Not detected: wrong U.2 cable or backplane, disabled slot, insufficient lanes, or an AIC power or clearance problem.
- Slow results: x4 versus x8 operation, thermal throttling, host limits, queue depth, workload type or an aged drive state.
- Low writes: the launch headline emphasized reads; random-write performance is substantially lower.
- Cannot boot: the platform BIOS may not support booting from that NVMe device.
Power-loss protection reduces corruption risk during an outage but does not replace backups, replication or a protected storage architecture. An endurance rating also does not reveal the remaining life of an individual second-hand drive.
Bottom line
The June 2017 PBlaze5 700 and 900 launch was notable because it brought unusually high-capacity enterprise NVMe storage to a PCIe 3.0 platform: up to 11 TB, 6 GB/s sequential read and roughly one million 4 KB random-read IOPS under stated test conditions. Its significance is historical today. Any deployment decision must be based on the exact SKU, endurance class, interface, health state and server compatibility—not on the headline numbers alone.
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