A new hardware vendor known as Apex Storage is offering a brand new AIC known as the X21 which seemingly supports 21 Gen 4 M.2 SSDs.

Hardware Vendor Showcases PCIe Gen 4 AIC With Support For 21 M.2 SSDs, 100 PCIe Lanes & 168 TB Capacities Per Card

Apex Storage is a name that we haven't heard of before and there are not many details provided on the webpage. The only product that the company has listed is its X21 AIC which is a very high-end product considering the feature that it is said to offer and the design is very interesting too.

Starting with the specifications, the Apex Storage X21 AIC comes in a single-slot form factor that sandwiches two tall PCBs together. The two PCBs are connected via a PCIe interface while the AIC itself uses a full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot to connect to the motherboard. All four sides of the dual PCBs are littered with PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD slots. There are 10 slots on the internal sides & 11 slots on the other sides of the PCB. There are two 6-pin connectors which along with the PCIe interface delivers around 225W of power to the components.

How Apex Storage X21 AIC achieves support for 21 PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSDs could be by using several PLX controllers which are situated underneath the large heatsink in the middle of the PCB. There are no pictures of the PLX hubs but the feature lists state that it supports 100 PCIe Lanes with 168 TB+ capacities per AIC (using 8 TB Gen 4 M.2 SSDs), up to 31 GB/s Read/Write speeds, and over 10 Million+ IOPS.

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The Apex Storage X21 AIC is a passive-cooled design but requires around 400 LFM of airflow at the minimum for stable operation. The whole thing weighs 19 oz but that will change when it will be loaded with 21 Gen 4 M.2 SSDs. There's no pricing or availability mentioned and we aren't sure if the product is just a prototype or a retail variant. Take the listing with a grain of salt but if real, this could be a cool product for storage enthusiasts.