Micron announces first PCIe 6.0 SSD with over 26 GB/s transfer speeds

Micron will showcase the industry’s first PCIe 6.0 SSDs at FMS (Flash Memory Summit) 2024 held in Santa Clara, California, US between the 6th and 8th of August. More details should be presented during the keynote titled “Data is at the heart of AI: Micron memory and storage are fueling the AI revolution,” which is going to be delivered by Micron’s SVP and GM Raj Narasimhan on Wednesday, August 7. The latest SSD models are scheduled to first roll out for data center partners and edge applications seeking to provide improved solutions for AI processing.

The press release only mentions that the PCIe 6.0 SSDs are capable of sequential read speeds in excess of 26 GB/s. To put this figure into perspective, the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs offer 14.5 GB/s sequential speeds, so the next gen SSDs would not actually double the speeds, at least not at launch. This was also the case with the first PCIe 5.0 models that could only reach 10 GB/s. 

Additionally, there is an FMS 2024 session titled “PCIe Gen6 electrical consideration and characterization for HVM SSDs” scheduled for Thursday, August 8, where Micron should provide details about power consumption and TDP. Hopefully, the PCIe 6.0 models do not require sophisticated cooling solutions, as it happened with the first PCIe 5.0 models that needed bulky coolers to dissipate the heat produced by the controllers. Seeing that PCIe 6.0 is not yet available for consumers, such next gen SSD speeds might take at least a year to hit PCs and laptops.

Additional products and demos complete with interactive touch-screen kiosks and physical display cases will be available at Micron’s own booth #107 at FMS 2024.