Supermicro Unveils 4U Server With 160 Hot-Swap NVMe Drive Bays

At FMS 2026, Supermicro showcased the ASG-4116S-NU160R, a 4U server that houses 160 NVMe SSD bays. The system uses standard 2.5-inch U.2 drives rather than a newer EDSFF form factor, which far exceeds the typical 24 to 48 drives found in comparable high-density servers. Its two-level slide-out tray separates the hot-swap drives from the CPU, memory, and networking, while central PCIe switches manage the connectivity that a single CPU could not provide directly. Each bay runs at PCIe 4.0 x1, and power and cooling are handled by redundant 2600W supplies and rear fans. The design aims to reduce server count, ports, and power overhead for large flash storage deployments.