PCIe^®—A Faster Interface

The PCIe interface, when used with the NVMe™ protocol, can significantly increase the speed of solid state drives. The PCIe connection uses four lanes of single serial data connections, which allows a four-fold speed increase over older, single-lane, interfaces.

PCIe, also known as PCI Express® or Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, is a high-speed serial bus used in computers. This is a physical connection that transmits information and data from one device to another within the computer or between the computer and a peripheral piece of equipment.

The specifications for the PCIe interface are maintained and developed by the PCI Special Interest Group, a consortium of more than 900 companies that work together to form a common standard.

PCIe 旨在取代 PCI、PCI-X 和 AGP 总线标准，这些旧标准在 20 世纪 90 年代中期之前被广泛使用。随着电脑用户需要外围设备具有更高的即插即用能力和更快的连接速度，产生了对其他标准的需求。PCIe 比旧标准有了不少改进；它的较大系统吞吐量更高，I/O 针数更少，占用空间更少，性能扩展性更好，可进行更详细的错误检测和报告，具有本机热插拔功能，而且能为 I/O 虚拟化提供硬件支持。

虽然 PCIe 是为外围设备而设计的，但电脑制造商意识到，更快的连接可提高固态硬盘等内部硬件的速度。SSD 的速度已经比传统硬盘更快，但由于现有连接标准 SATA 的局限性，速度无法进一步提升。新的逻辑接口协议 NVMe 伴随着 PCIe 标准面世，使固态硬盘可以实现更快的速度。在此处了解有关 NVMe 的更多信息。

The implementation of multiple lanes for the PCIe connection is one of the most important features of the standard. A lane is a single serial data connection, similar to a SATA connection. PCIe uses four lanes for storage devices, resulting in data exchange that is four times faster than a SATA connection.

All of these enhancements come with another benefit, reduced power consumption. The combination of NVME, PCIe, and an SSD's lack of moving parts results in a storage drive that sips power, extending battery life for laptops, notebooks, and tablets.

Using PCIe as the connector, along with the NVMe protocol, results in a faster solid state drive.