PCIe Gen 6 is... Abnormal | The Future is PCIe (Part 3), ft. Wendell of Level1 Techs

PCIe is evolving into a universal, high-speed backbone that unifies storage, networking, and graphics. While current enterprise-grade PCIe Gen 6 hardware is highly specialized and complex, the shift toward open standards is making this technology more accessible, with optical connectivity expected to be the next major development for consumer devices.

• Gen 6 debut — The newest standard first appeared in the high-speed data path between GPUs and networking hardware, rather than inside the CPU [00:14].

• Optical shift — Future consumer hardware will likely adopt on-chip photonics, where silicon chips emit light directly, to reduce costs and increase speed [07:24].

• Efficiency gains — Eliminating repeated electrical-to-optical signal conversions saves power and significantly lowers latency compared to traditional methods [11:13].

• Enterprise repurposing — While much data center hardware is proprietary, engineers are successfully harvesting chips from retired motherboards to create functional, custom PCIe adapters [17:20].

• Networking accessibility — High-speed networking components, such as 100 gigabit optics, are now inexpensive to manufacture, making them viable for advanced home use [27:16].

• Open standard pressure — The industry is moving away from proprietary designs because open standards are cheaper to produce and easier to maintain for long-term development [37:01].

• What are the primary advantages of using optical interconnects over electrical ones in hardware?

• How can home users integrate enterprise-grade GPU hardware into a standard workstation?