If you are looking for a storage space device with great bandwidth, quick write speeds, and high performance along with a nascent ecosystem to support it all, a PCIe Gen 3 or 4 solid-state drive (SSD) might be a good option for you. In fact, having sold dozens of PCIe 3 licenses to organizations across multiple industries, we know this technology is currently one of the smartest choices when it comes to external storage. And now, PCIe Gen 5 SSDs are ready to enter the market.
The Future of External Storage Drives is About to Change
The application possibilities for using PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) high-speed interface to connect your components are almost limitless – solid-state drives, cloud computing servers, re-timers, automotive, and more. Any application that requires enormous amounts of data to be processed, the previous generations of PCIe can work miracles.
With PCIe Gen 5 slated to enter consumer market by 2024, the raw transfer speeds of external drives is going to be unbelievable – imagine a bandwidth of 32 gigatransfers/sec (GT/s). That’s almost double that of PCIe Gen 4! You can also expect data transfer speeds of up to 12GB/s for writes and up to 14GB/s for reads. Even the most high-end PCIe 4 rugged hard drives currently top out at half those speeds.
The enterprise version of rugged SSD and rugged external hard drives with PCIe 5 technology is estimated to be available by late 2022.
Things to Keep In Mind Before Transitioning
As exciting as new technologies are, there is always a risk in adopting them. For example, the more sophisticated your design, the more gates it will have. This means you’ll need to have a greater number of masks and devices, particularly in the smaller process nodes.
There are not a lot of CPUs right now that can handle PCIe 5, which means you probably can’t plug in your PCIe 5 rugged mini or external SSD just yet. If a seamless interface for your components is your main objective, this can be a cause of concern.
Another factor to note is that PCI-SIG – the consortium that regulates the PCI specifications – doesn’t yet have an approved list of integrators. “Integrators” refers to vendors whose rugged external drive products have gone through diligent testing to ensure compliance. In other words, there is no product as of yet that can make the claim that it is PCIe 5 generation compliant.
The good news is that the rise of fifth-generation PCIe is here and it’s soon going to be mainstream. There is a lot that needs to be considered when it comes to the risk-reward tradeoff as you determine what’s right for your application.
The Leading External SSD Manufacturer since 2007
Accelerated Memory Production Inc.’s industrial solid-state drives and memory solutions deliver efficient responsiveness, dependable performance, and impressive storage capacity to accomplish mission-critical tasks. Built to withstand the harshest environments, our external hard drives come in different form factors such as 1.8”, 2.5”, PATA SSD, SD cards, and USB drives for industrial and enterprise applications.
If you have any questions about our products, please contact us online or give us a call at 714-460-9800.
