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"Our current plan is [to launch client-grade PCIe Gen6 SSD platform] the end of next year," said Duann, senior vice president of client & automotive storage business unit at Silicon Motion, during the interview . "We are not pushing client PCIe Gen6 because of Intel or AMD CPUs. We are pushing it because of Nvidia. Nvidia is moving into the client side as well, and you can sense that from its [ Computex ] keynote. Nvidia's processors are power-hungry and data-hungry, so our client-side PCIe Gen6 roadmap is driven by Nvidia, not Intel or AMD."
Solid-state drives with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface have been around for about 3.5 years now, so many enthusiasts are eager to move on to SSDs with a PCIe 6.0 x4 interface just because they always want more performance. But while there is one PCIe Gen6 drive model on the market — the Micron 9650 — there are no consumer-oriented platforms that support the latest interface.
In fact, AMD's 6 th Generation Epyc 'Venice' and Nvidia's Vera Rubin will be the only data center CPU platforms to support PCIe 6.0 this year. The broader industry will still be able to take advantage of the next-generation interconnect this year, thanks to switches from companies like Astera Labs, but its adoption will be relatively limited in 2026.
Because PCIe 6.x is challenging and expensive to implement, AMD and Intel are not exactly in a hurry to launch their PCIe Gen6 platforms for client systems, which is why Silicon Motion is trying to align its roadmap with that of Nvidia, which may be more eager to offer a client-grade PCIe 6.0 platform sooner rather than later. With GB10 and future RTX Spark chips, Nvidia is touting bandwidth-hungry AI applications, so using PCIe 6.0 x4 SSDs may make sense for the company.
SMI's PCIe 6.0 SSD controller for consumer SSDs coming next year, but severe NAND shortages will get even worse in 2027 as AI data centers swallow supply
Phison shows PCIe 6.0 X3 SSD controller with 28 GB/s of bandwidth and 6.8 million IOPS, supports 2 petabytes per drive
New Silicon Motion SM2524XT chip brings 14 GB/s to mainstream SSDs
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/silicon-motions-client-pcie-6-x-roadmap-is-driven-by-nvidia-not-by-amd-and-intel-rtx-spark-agentic-ai-platform-could-fuel-a-hunger-for-storage-bandwidth#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.