Microchip & Micron demonstrate high-performance PCIe Gen 6 storage architecture
Microchip has announced a demonstration showcasing an end to end PCIe Gen 6 storage architecture, combining Microchip’s Switchtec PCIe Gen 6 switches with high-performance Micron 9650 NVMe solid state drives (SSDs). The demonstration highlights the role of next generation PCIe technology in enabling higher data throughput, reduced latency and scalable connectivity for AI, high performance computing (HPC) and cloud data centre workloads.
At the 2026 Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) Conference, the demonstration features a Microchip Switchtec Gen 6 PCIe fanout switch acting as a high bandwidth, low latency interconnect between host processors and multiple Micron 9650 SSDs enabling the drives to operate at the full potential of Gen 6 speed. The architecture supports composable and disaggregated system designs, allowing data centre architects to scale storage resources efficiently while maintaining predictable performance.
As AI models grow in size and complexity, data centres must move increasingly large volumes of data across compute, memory and storage resources. PCIe 6.0 helps address this challenge by doubling PCIe 5.0 bandwidth to 64 GT/s (giga transfers per second) per lane, delivering the sustained throughput required for demanding AI workloads.
Microchip’s Switchtec Gen 6 PCIe switches are built on 3 nm process technology and support high lane counts, advanced error containment, comprehensive diagnostics and multicast functionality that enables efficient one-to-many data distribution across devices within a PCIe domain. The switches enable high-speed connectivity between CPUs, GPUs, SoCs, AI accelerators and storage devices while helping optimise power consumption in demanding computing environments.
These capabilities help ensure reliable data movement and system resilience in AI and cloud infrastructure. To help protect system integrity, the switches incorporate a hardware root of trust and secure boot architecture supported by post-quantum-safe cryptographic algorithms that meet CNSA 2.0 security standards.
Micron 9650 PCIe Gen 6 NVMe SSDs are designed to deliver exceptional throughput, IOPS and latency characteristics required for data intensive workloads such as AI training, real time analytics and large scale databases. By combining Micron’s storage technology with Microchip’s switching capability, the solution demonstrates a balanced, high performance storage fabric optimised for next generation platforms.
