PCI-SIG® in 2020: A Year in Review

By Kurt Lender and Scott Knowlton, Marketing Work Group Co-Chairs, PCI-SIG

Despite the many challenges in 2020, we are proud to report that it has been a successful year for, PCI-SIG®.  We continued the momentum started in 2019 with PCIe® 4.0 Compliance Testing, continued work on the PCIe 6.0 specification, and brought our members new ways to engage with virtual workshops and DevCons. Read on for our top milestones from this year.

  1. We continued progress on the PCI Express® 6.0 specification, releasing versions 0.5 and 0.7 to members. The ongoing effort to double the bandwidth of PCIe specifications to 64 GT/s speeds remains a priority for PCI-SIG, and the specification is on track for full release in 2021.
  2. PCIe 4.0 Compliance Testing momentum continued with virtual workshops. We have continued expanding the PCIe technology ecosystem in 2020 with Virtual Compliance Workshops #114 and #115, which were held remotely at VTM Group headquarters. Both workshops were very successful, with 51 member companies participating and 61 new products added to the PCI-SIG Integrators List this year.
  3. The U.S. Developers Conference and Annual Meeting in June was our first virtual DevCon.  In lieu of the regular U.S. DevCon this year, we made session content available to members as virtual recordings. We also held live Q&A sessions on a variety of topics, which are available to members. The 2020 Annual Meeting was held virtually via WebEx and included the “State of the SIG Address” from PCI-SIG President & Chairman Al Yanes and an introduction of the newly elected PCI-SIG Board of Directors for 2020-21.
  4. PCI-SIG hosted the Fall Virtual Developers Conference in October. We shifted this year’s APAC DevCon to a virtual experience to ensure the safety of our community of developers while providing an interactive experience, regardless of their location. The conference was a success, with a robust agenda of PCIe technology topics delivered by knowledgeable speakers. We had seven member companies sponsor the event, and attendees were able to visit sponsor booths on the virtual event platform. If you missed any of the presentations, members can access them on the event website.
  5. We shifted the annual PCI-SIG Virtual Product Wall to our YouTube Channel. This video series showcases 29 PCI-SIG member products leveraging PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 architectures, including networking solutions, storage solutions, test solutions, IP solutions and retimers. Please contact us if you would like your products included in future Virtual Product Walls.
  6. We held four quarterly webinars on a variety of topics like EDSFF form factors, the PCIe 6.0 specification and Integrity and Data Encryption (IDE). The most recent webinar, “Seamless Transition to PCIe® 5.0 Technology in System Implementations,” was presented in both English and Mandarin. The webinars have been a big success, and we’re excited to continue to provide great content in 2021 – subscribe to our channel on BrightTALK for updates.
  7. PCI-SIG members spoke at several virtual industry events. In October, PCI-SIG Board Member Debendra Das Sharma participated in Hot Interconnects (Hoti27). You can view the slides from his presentation here. Debendra also presented on the role of the PCIe 6.0 specification in HPC applications at OCP Tech Week in November. In May, PCI-SIG President & Chairman Al Yanes presented at the Virtual OCP Summit. His presentation, “PCIe Technology: Connecting OCP Architectures of the Future,” is available on demand.

While 2020 has been a difficult year in many ways, we have been amazed by the dedication and willingness of the PCI-SIG community to come together to continue the growth and advancement of PCIe technology. We wish you a Happy Holidays and we look forward to an eventful 2021.