PCI Express 4.0 (PCIe Gen4)
Overview
The PCI-SIG®, the organization responsible for the PCI Express® (PCIe®) standard, released the PCI Express Base Specification Revision 4.0 Version 1.0 in 2017. This specification doubles the throughput of PCIe from approximately 1GBs per lane to approximately 2GBs per lane.
PCIe Gen4 now provides speeds up to 16 GT/s, as well as other improvements, to accommodate data center and high-speed consumer applications.
The PCIe Gen 4 specification represents an exciting new advancement in input/output (I/O) technology and is expected to be widely adopted across a wide range of data center and automotive advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) equipment utilizing processing and peripheral devices such as graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), network interface cards (NICs), NVM Express (NVMe) solid state drives (SSDs), storage controllers, automotive cameras and Infotainment. Applications such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as traditional enterprise workloads utilizing networking, storage and offload processors, all benefit from the increased bandwidth of PCIe Gen 4 systems
What is new with the PCIe 4.0 Specification?
The major update in PCIe Gen4, is doubling the transfer rate from 8GT/s in Gen3 to 16GT/s in Gen4.
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This means the overall bandwidth supported will also double -per lane bandwidth will double from 1GB/s to 2GB/s. This drastically increased bandwidth, greatly increasing the potential of what connected hardware can do. Other enhancements include reductions to system latency, improved scalability for added lanes, lane margining, and bug fixes – all while remaining a low cost backward compatible solution. How compatible is PCIe Gen 4? As with previous specifications of PCIe, PCIe 4.0 will be fully backward-compatible, so devices designed for earlier specifications will still operate correctly with the new technology. |
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What are the best use cases for PCIe Gen 4?
Interfaces such as accelerators, GPUs, Ethernet 40G/100G, InfiniBand, solid-state drives (SSDs), and flash memory are demanding higher throughput. The PCIe architecture is the only technology solution that achieves this level of performance with minimal new software upgrades for these new interfaces.
Where to next?
The PCIe Gen4 ecosystem is just beginning
Microsemi is a leader in PCIe, having introduced multiple industry firsts, including the first PCIe Gen 3 SAS/SATA RAID Controller, the first Storage PCIe Switches (Switchtec™), with the industry’s leading port count and signal integrity, and the Industry’s lowest power consumption, and the first NVMe Controller (Flashtec™).
Microsemi continues to innovate with next generation solutions that enable customers deploy PCIe Gen 4 system hardware designs. Stay tuned for even more exciting news to come.
Press
August 2, 2018
Microsemi Announces Availability of Low Latency, Low Power, High Reliability Gen 4 PCIe Switches Enabling High Performance Interconnect in Rapidly Growing Markets
New Switchtec PCIe Switches Provide 16 GT/s PCIe Connectivity for Machine Learning, Data Center Servers and Storage Markets
August 2, 2018
Microsemi Announces Sampling of Industry's Highest Performing Enterprise Gen 4 PCIe Controller
New NVMe 3016 Device Offers the Most Flexible and Programmable Controller for Enterprise and Cloud Workloads
August 6, 2018
Microsemi Leading Industry Innovation with 24G SAS and PCIe Gen 4 Tri-mode Storage Controller Technology
16 Nanometer Controllers Will Unleash the Full Potential of Storage Infrastructure Technologies for the PCIe Gen 4 Data Center
August 7, 2018
Microsemi Announces Industry's First 24G SAS Expanders for Data Center Storage
New Family Addresses High Bandwidth Storage Needs to Unlock Full Performance Capabilities of PCIe Gen 4-Capable Systems
