KIOXIA is updating its AiSAQ (All-in-Storage ANNS with Product Quantization) software to improve the usability of AI vector database searches within retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems by optimizing the use of solid-state drives (SSDs).
According to the company, this new open-source release introduces flexible controls that allow system architects to define the balance point between search performance and the number of vectors, which are opposing factors with the fixed capacity of SSD storage in the system.
The resulting benefit enables architects of RAG systems to fine-tune the optimal balance between specific workloads and their requirements, without any hardware modifications.
First introduced in January 2025, KIOXIA AiSAQ software uses a novel approximate nearest neighbor search (ANNS) algorithm that is optimized for SSDs and eliminates the need to store index data in DRAM.
By enabling vector searches directly on SSDs and reducing host memory requirements, KIOXIA AiSAQ technology allows vector databases to scale, largely without the restrictions caused by limited DRAM capacity, the company said.
This latest update allows administrators to select the optimal balance for a variety of contrasting workloads among the RAG system. This update makes KIOXIA AiSAQ technology a suitable SSD-based ANNS for not only RAG applications, but also other vector-hungry applications such as offline semantic searches.
With growing demand for scalable AI services, SSDs offer a practical alternative to DRAM for managing the high throughput and low latency that RAG systems require. KIOXIA AiSAQ software makes it possible to meet these demands efficiently, enabling large-scale generative AI without being constrained by limited memory resources, the company said.
By open-sourcing KIOXIA AiSAQ software, the company is advancing SSD-centric architectures and supporting broader adoption of scalable AI systems.
“With the latest version of KIOXIA AiSAQ software, we’re giving developers and system architects the tools to fine-tune both performance and capacity,” said Neville Ichhaporia, senior vice president and general manager of the SSD business unit at KIOXIA America, Inc. “This level of flexibility is critical to building scalable, RAG systems—powered by SSD storage. By open-sourcing our technology, we’re reinforcing our commitment to the AI community with solutions that are both powerful and accessible to everyone."
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