SSD Micron 9650 Pro PCIe 6.0 30,25 Гбіт/с / Tom’s Hardware
Solid state drives for PCIe 5.0 with transfer rates of 12-15 Gbps are no longer a surprise. But Micron decided to surprise with an SSD with a sequential read/write speed of 30.25 Gbps.
In fact, the Micron 9650 Pro drive is a prototype. In the photo, you can see that it is hastily attached to a PCIe 6.0 expansion card and housed in a bulky metal case, far from the usual M.2 form factor.
This SSD was spotted by the website Tom’s Hardware at the Astera Labs booth, where he helped demonstrate next-generation PCIe 6.0 switches and bandwidth negotiation software. Fast connectivity allows drives and other devices to communicate directly with each other, bypassing the CPU and offloading it.
Currently, no CPUs available officially support PCIe 6.0, and PCI-SIG certification for 6th generation devices not expected by the end of 2025. This fact leaves the Micron 9650 Pro in the category of technical demo devices that will not be available to users soon. The ecosystem, which includes motherboards, processors, and certificates, will definitely not appear in the near future.
The device shown at Computex is currently at the EVT3 (Engineering Validation Test 3) stage. That is, two rounds of setup and testing have already taken place, and now the performance and compatibility tuning phase is underway. The device still needs to undergo Design Validation Testing (DVT) and Production Validation Testing (PVT) before anything close to a commercial release becomes a reality.
This presentation followed a previous demonstration by Micron and Astera Labs at DesignCon. There, the companies’ hardware and software demonstrated real PCIe 6.0 performance at 27 Gbps.