Technology

• Kioxia reveals new project called AiSAQ which wants to substitute RAM with SSDs for AI data processing
• Bigger (read: 100TB+) SSDs could improve RAG at a lower cost than using memory only
• No timeline has been given, but expect Kioxia's rivals to offer similar tech

Large language models often generate plausible but factually incorrect outputs - in other words, they make stuff up. These "hallucination"s can damage reliability in information-critical tasks such as medical diagnosis, legal analysis, financial reporting, and scientific research.

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) mitigates this issue by integrating external data sources, allowing LLMs to access real-time information during generation, reducing errors, and, by grounding outputs in current data, improving contextual accuracy. Implementing RAG effectively requires substantial memory and storage resources, and this is particularly true for large-scale vector data and indices. Traditionally, this data has been stored in DRAM, which, while fast, is both expensive and limited in capacity.

To address these challenges, ServeTheHome reports that at this year’s CES, Japanese memory giant Kioxia introduced AiSAQ - All-in-Storage Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search (ANNS) with Product Quantization - that uses high-capacity SSDs to store vector data and indices. Kioxia claims AiSAQ significantly reduces DRAM usage compared to DiskANN, offering a more cost-effective and scalable approach for supporting large AI models.

More accessible and cost-effective

(Image credit: Kioxia)

Shifting to SSD-based storage allows for the handling of larger datasets without the high costs associated with extensive DRAM use.

While accessing data from SSDs may introduce slight latency compared to DRAM, the trade-off includes lower system costs and improved scalability, which can support better model performance and accuracy as larger datasets provide a richer foundation for learning and inference.

By using high-capacity SSDs, AiSAQ addresses the storage demands of RAG while contributing to the broader goal of making advanced AI technologies more accessible and cost-effective. Kioxia hasn't revealed when it plans to bring AiSAQ to market, but its safe to bet rivals like Micron and SK Hynix will have something similar in the works.

ServeTheHome concludes, “Everything is AI these days, and Kioxia is pushing this as well. Realistically, RAG is going to be an important part of many applications, and if there is an application that needs to access lots of data, but it is not used as frequently, this would be a great opportunity for something like Kioxia AiSAQ.”

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• The iOS 19 Camera app is rumored to be getting a redesign
• It could be a sign of a wider visual revamp for iOS 19
• The updated look may have been inspired by Apple visionOS

The Camera app is probably one of the most-used iPhone apps for the majority of us, and the rumor is that this key piece of software is going to get a revamp with the roll out of iOS 19 and the iPhone 17 later this year.

According to Front Page Tech (via MacRumors), the Camera app interface will become more fluid, smoothly adapting its layout as different features and options (like panoramic pictures or slow-motion videos) are accessed.

Most of the screen is still taken up with the viewfinder (what you're actually taking a photo of), but options for image and video resolution are going to be easier to access, with drop-down panels appearing at the top of the display.

The interface's fluidity and translucent panels are, as Front Page Tech points out, very reminiscent of the visionOS software that runs on the Apple Vision Pro. The thinking is that the design revamp might apply to the rest of iOS 19 too.

iOS meets visionOS

You may remember there was some chatter around iOS 18 potentially getting a visionOS-inspired redesign last year. That didn't happen, but it seems Apple is still considering making its iPhone software more like its Vision Pro software.

Nothing is certain yet though – even tipster Jon Prosser, in the Front Page Tech video you can see above, isn't sure what's going to happen – but we know Apple will already be working on iOS 19 updates ready for its iPhones.

We should get our first look at iOS 19 sometime in June, when Apple holds its annual WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference). A beta program will probably follow on soon after, with a full release in September to coincide with the iPhone 17 range.

There hasn't been much in the way of rumors or leaks around iOS 19 up till now, though we have heard that any iPhone running iOS 18 will be able to run iOS 19 too. We'll most likely see a host of additional Apple Intelligence upgrades as well.

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