Exascend, the enterprise and workstation brand from Memoright, unveiled its first SSDs running the new NVMe 2.1 protocol at Computex 2026 in Taipei. These drives mark an early adoption of the latest storage standard, arriving well ahead of mainstream PCIe Gen 5 SSDs still shipping with NVMe 2.0. The protocol brings computational storage capabilities and enhanced security features aimed primarily at data center applications.

The flagship PE5 SSD arrives in E1.S form-factor with PCIe Gen 5 x4 connectivity, NVMe 2.1 support, and 3D TLC NAND flash. Capacities span from 1.92 TB to 15.36 TB, delivering sequential transfer speeds up to 14 GB/s. An M.2-2280 variant offers identical specifications and the same maximum capacity, giving system builders more flexibility for high-performance builds.

For enterprise deployments, the PD5 series provides larger capacities with power-loss protection and ships in E3.S and 12 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factors with U.2 Gen 5 interface. The company also displayed DDR5 UDIMM modules targeting the broader consumer market. NVMe 2.1's advanced features like TLS 1.3 authentication and out-of-bounds management will likely trickle down to AI inferencing workstations before reaching mainstream users.

Exascend's early NVMe 2.1 implementation signals the storage industry's push toward smarter, more secure SSDs that can handle compute tasks directly on the drive rather than relying solely on host processors.