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Forward-looking: PCIe 5.0 SSDs are fast, but they're kind of old news now – they're everywhere and have kind of lost some of their "wow" factor. But this year, Micron shook things up with a sneak peek at what's next with a prototype PCIe 6.0 SSD. What makes it special is its potential to hit a jaw-dropping 30.25 GB/s in sequential read and write speeds – double the throughput of today's fastest consumer SSDs.
It all sounds great, as long as you're not expecting to pop one into your gaming rig anytime soon. Dubbed the Micron 9650 Pro, the SSD is still very much in the test-bench phase. It was spotted by Tom's Hardware at Computex 2025, housed in a chunky metal enclosure and far from the familiar M.2 form factor.
In fact, it appeared to be connected to a PCIe 6.0 expansion card, held down with what looked like sticky tape.
Unfortunately, Micron isn't targeting your desktop just yet. The 9650 Pro is more of a data center and AI platform play right now. It was showcased at Astera Labs' booth, where it was helping demonstrate next-gen PCIe 6.0 switches and bandwidth-matching software.
These switches allow devices like GPUs and SSDs to communicate directly with each other, skipping the CPU entirely - something that's becoming increasingly crucial in high-performance AI workflows.
Also read: The Inner Workings of PCI Express
The catch here is that no CPUs officially support PCIe 6.0 yet, and PCI-SIG certification for Gen 6 devices isn't expected until late 2025.
That puts the 9650 Pro firmly in the "cool tech demo" category, at least for now. Until the ecosystem that includes motherboards, CPUs, and certification bodies catches up, don't expect it to land in your build anytime soon.
What was demoed at Computex is currently in the EVT3 (Engineering Validation Test 3) stage, meaning it has already gone through two rounds of hardware tuning and is now being used to fine-tune performance and compatibility.
From here, it still needs to pass through Design Validation Testing (DVT) and Production Validation Testing (PVT) before anything close to a commercial release becomes a reality.
This latest showcase follows an earlier Micron and Astera Labs demo at DesignCon, where they showed real-world PCIe 6.0 performance hitting 27 GB/s.
Image credit: Tom's Hardware
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