PCI Categorical 5.0 has solely simply began arriving on the shopper aspect, however the specification for PCIe 6.0 has simply been finalized. The PCI Particular Curiosity Group has revealed the final specs for PCIe 6.0, doubling the bandwidth over the 5.0 model as much as a theoretical most bidirectional pace of 256GBps on an x16 slot (128GBps in a single course).
The primary tremendous quick PCIe 5.0 SSDs appeared simply earlier than this yr’s Shopper Electronics Present, promising learn speeds of as much as 14GBps. That was already twice what we’re used to seeing with PCIe 4.0 drives, and with the doubling PCIe 6.0 brings we’d anticipate to see SSDs supply as much as 28GBps in the future.
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PCIe 6.0 vs. present PCIe specs.
Picture: PCI Particular Curiosity Group
The PCI Particular Curiosity Group has achieved the doubling of PCI Categorical speeds round each three years ever since the unique introduction of the spec in 2003. PCIe 6.0 has overhauled the signaling expertise to attain the bandwidth good points this time, whereas sustaining low latency. It’s a transfer that Anandtech describes as “a extra important overhaul, arguably the largest in the historical past of the normal.”
The PCIe 6.0 structure additionally maintains compatibility with all earlier generations of PCIe. That can permit any present {hardware} that makes use of earlier specs to work in PCIe 6.0 hosts, and it would actually assist with adoption and the transition to this new specification.
Whereas PCIe 5.0 is nonetheless in its infancy and being demonstrated with enterprise-grade SSDs, we shouldn’t anticipate to see PCIe 6.0 {hardware} for one other 12 to 18 months. Meaning some servers will probably begin to use the new spec sooner or later in 2023, with shopper {hardware} to observe in 2024 or 2025. Till then, prepare to listen to much more about PCIe 5.0 SSDs, GPUs, and extra all through 2022.
