PCIe 6.0 specification finalised, get ready for speeds of up to 256GB/s

The PCI Special Interest Group has finalised the specification for PCIe 6.0 and it will deliver double the bandwidth of PCIe 5.0.

This means a single PCIe 6.0 lane will be able to deliver up to 8GB of data per second in each direction. With a full x16 link, we are looking at speeds of up to 128GB/s in a single direction or 256GB/s in total.

It goes without saying then that PCIe 6.0 will enable even faster storage subsystems and better graphics performance.

To do this, the PCI Special Interest Group has significantly overhauled the signalling technology, moving from Non-Return-to-Zero technology to Pulse-Amplitude Modulation 4. Anandtech has covered this in greater detail here.

The increased bandwidth could mean SSDs delivering real-world speeds of up to 28GB/s. The latest PCIe 5.0 SSDs now offer maximum speeds of up to 14GB/s.

Now, while this sounds very exciting, don't expect PCIe 6.0 SSDs to appear any time soon. Reports say the earliest PCIe 6.0 hardware could only arrive in the next 12 to 18 months.

Source: PCI Special Interest Group via The Verge