As an interconnect standard, PCI Express has been favored by the IT industry for nearly 20 years. We've seen several exciting iterations of the release. The latest news is that with the official release of the PCIe 6.0 specification by the PCI-SIG, its data transfer rate per channel has doubled again to 64 GT/s compared to PCIe 5.0 (32 GT/s). In addition to the increased bandwidth and efficiency, PCIe 6.0 has lower latency overhead.
(From: PCI-SIG website)
Al Yanes, Chairman and President of the PCI-SIG, said: "Less than three years after the pcie 5.0 specification was published, we are pleased to have re-enacted the PCIe 6.0 specification."
As a cost-effective and scalable interconnect solution, it will continue to have a significant impact on data-intensive markets.
Covering data centers, artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (DL), high-performance computing (HPC), in-vehicle, Internet of Things (IoT), military/aerospace and more.
In addition, pcIe 6.0 helps maintain existing and future industry investments thanks to backward compatibility with all previous generation technology standards.
PCIe 6.0 Specification Evolving Performance for Data Centric Applications（via）
Here are the main specifications for PCIe 6.0:
● 64 GT/s raw data rate per channel, 256 GB/s bandwidth in x16 configuration.
● Utilizes the industry's ready-made PAM4 solution to support 4-stage signal pulse amplitude modulation.
● Supplemented by lightweight forward error correction (FEC) and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) schemes, it helps mitigate the growth of bit error rates associated with PAM4 signaling.
● SupportSpecifying Flit-based flow control unit coding and PAM4 modulation for doubling bandwidth gain.
● Updated the packet layout used in Flit mode to provide additional functionality and simplify processing.
● Retain backward compatibility with all previous generations of PCIe technology.
Greg Wong, founder and principal analyst at Forward Insights, said: "The PCIeSSD market is expected to grow to more than 800 exabytes at a compound annual growth rate of 40% by 2025, and PCI-SIG will continue to meet the future needs of storage applications."
As the storage industry transitions from PCIe 4.0 to PCIe 5.0, the PCIe 6.0 roadmap for enterprises is on the cutting. With future-proof development, we can take advantage of the high bandwidth and low latency benefits of PCI Express technology.
In addition, Ashish Nadkarni, vice president of IDC's Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technologies Group, noted that the demand for high performance in areas such as high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), and data centers is also growing.
The application outlook is expected to look very different in the next 3 to 5 years. Enterprises may begin to update their roadmaps accordingly, and established architectural standards advancements such as PCIe 6.0 will provide good support for infrastructure construction for performance-intensive computing use cases.