PCI Express 5.0 Released: Promises Up To 128GB/s Transfer Speed

The PCI Special Interest Group has announced the next version of the popular I/O interface for connecting peripherals to computers. The latest version almost doubles on the speeds provided by PCIe 4.0.

According to a blog post, PCIe 5.0 can deliver a raw data rate of around 32GT/s (gigatransfers per second). This translates to roughly 128GB/s transfer speeds over 16-lane (x16) configuration. In comparison, PCIe 4.0 over x16 provides a total of 16T/s or 64GB/s.

So, for PCIe 5.0, the transfer speed is 64 GB/s for each input and output operations. For your reference, it delivers 4GB/s in each direction over a single lane (x1) configuration.

Furthermore, PCIe 5.0 adds support for a new CEM connector designed for add-in cards and also provides backward compatibility to all PCIe 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, and 1.0 versions. It also improves on the mechanical performance and the signal integrity of the connectors.

The development of the new version took less than two years since PCIe 4.0 was officially announced back in 2017. The group’s Chairman AI Yanes has called it a “major achievement” and said that such technologies are required for new data-intensive applications that require high performance.

As you might know, PCI Express is a common interface used to plug in stuff like hard drives, graphics cards, and Wi-Fi cards. However, it’s another thing that the older version PCIe 4.0 is itself a rare occurrence on most of our laptops and desktops.

So, it remains to be seen how the PCI Special Interest Group plans to improve the adoption of the new version.

Via Phoronix

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