PCI Express 6.0 on track to go final in 2021

PCI-SIG announced they've completed version 0.7 of the PCI Express 6.0 specification. While there are no PCI Express 5.0 solutions on the market yet, and even PCI Express 4.0 support is still quite limited in the consumer market, the group believes PCI Express 6.0 is on track to be finalized in 2021.

Overall not a lot of big surprises. We already knew PCI Express 6.0 would double the bandwidth to 64GT/s. PCI-SIG's press release also reveals PCI Express 6.0 will use PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation with 4 levels) encoding and Low-latency Forward Error Correction (FEC). The new standard also remains backwards compatible with earlier generations.

This year has been challenging for us all and we hope that you and your families are staying healthy and safe. Despite the trials that we have faced, PCI-SIG® is adapting our events and workshops to these new times and pressing on in specification development. From ushering our Developers Conferences into the virtual age or developing modified virtual Compliance Workshops, PCI-SIG has continued to prioritize members education and engagement in 2020.

Perhaps our most exciting announcement is in a continued effort to double the bandwidth of our PCI Express® (PCIe®) specifications, PCI-SIG has officially released the PCIe 6.0 Specification, Version 0.7 to our members.

PCIe 6.0 Specification Features Overview

A data rate of 64 GT/s speeds, doubling the 32GT/s data rate of the PCIe 5.0 specification

A move to PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation with 4 levels) encoding

Low-latency Forward Error Correction (FEC) with additional mechanisms to improve bandwidth efficiency

Backwards compatibility with all previous specification generations

Explore PCIe 6.0 Technology
We have many educational resources available for both PCI-SIG members and non-members. If you haven’t yet watched it, I invite you to view Debendra Das Sharma’s highly attended PCIe 6.0 specification webinar deep dive. Because of the overwhelming support and interest this webinar received, Debendra has also developed various blogs answering audience questions on advanced specification features like PAM4, L0P and FEC.

PCI-SIG members receive additional opportunities to learn about PCIe 6.0 technology and can even influence the development of this technology through work group participation. If you would like to learn how your company can join PCI-SIG, I encourage you to visit the Become a Member page on our website.

2021 will be another thrilling year for PCIe technology with the full release of the PCIe 6.0 specification. I look forward to sharing more information on our groundbreaking new specification in the coming months.