PCI-SIG Releases PCIe 6.0 Specifications

PCI-Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced the release of the PCIe 6.0 specification. The PCIe 6.0 specification adds new features while meeting industry demand for a high-speed, low-latency interconnect. PCIe 6.0 specification, with a 64 GT/s raw data rate, will pave the way for rapid innovation in emerging markets like the Data Center, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, HPC, Automotive, IoT, and Military/Aerospace.

PCI-Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced the release of the PCIe 6.0 specification. The PCIe 6.0 specification adds new features while meeting industry demand for a high-speed, low-latency interconnect. PCIe 6.0 specification, with a 64 GT/s raw data rate, will pave the way for rapid innovation in emerging markets like the Data Center, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, HPC, Automotive, IoT, and Military/Aerospace.

The PCIe 6.0 specification comes less than three years after the PCIe 5.0 specification and doubles the bandwidth and power efficiency of the PCIe 5.0 specification (32 GT/s) while providing low latency and reduced bandwidth overhead.

Al Yanes, PCI-SIG Chairperson and President said,

“PCIe 6.0 technology is the cost-effective and scalable interconnect solution that will continue to impact data-intensive markets like data center, artificial intelligence/machine learning, HPC, automotive, IoT, and military/aerospace, while also protecting industry investments by maintaining backward compatibility with all previous generations of PCIe technology.”

The storage industry is transitioning to PCIe 4.0 technology and is expected to introduce PCIe 5.0 drives in the very near future. PCIe Gen6 technology should begin showing up in storage company’s roadmaps as they future-proof products to take advantage of this increase in performance and speed.

The PCIe 6.0 spec is needed to target heterogeneous computing applications like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning require a high-performance, low-latency I/O interconnect with additional performance over PCIe 5.0. The initial target applications of PCIe 6.0 technology include servers, AI/ML, networking, and storage in data-intensive markets like data center, HPC, industrial, automotive, and Military/Aerospace.

PCIe 6.0 products will interoperate and maintain backward compatibility with all previous generations of PCI Express technology. PCIe 6.0 Preliminary FYI testing is expected to begin in 2023.

PCIe Gen6 Specification Features

• 64 GT/s raw data rate and up to 256 GB/s via x16 configuration
• Pulse Amplitude Modulation with four levels (PAM4) signaling and leverages existing PAM4 already available in the industry
• Lightweight Forward Error Correct (FEC) and Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) mitigate the bit error rate increase associated with PAM4 signaling
• Flit (flow control unit) based encoding supports PAM4 modulation and enables more than double the bandwidth gain
• Updated Packet layout used in Flit Mode to provide additional functionality and simplify processing
• Maintains backward compatibility with all previous generations of PCIe technology

To learn more about PCI-SIG, visit www.pcisig.com. PCI-SIG members can download the full specification here.

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