Microchip launches PCIe Gen 6 switches

Microchip Technology Inc. expands its Switchtec PCIe family with its next-generation Switchtec Gen 6 PCIe fanout switches, supporting up to 160 lanes for high-density AI systems. Claiming the industry’s first PCIe Gen 6 switches manufactured using a 3-nm process, the Switchtec Gen 6 family features lower power consumption and advanced security features, including a hardware root of trust and secure boot with post-quantum-safe cryptography compliant with the Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite (CNSA) 2.0.

The PCIe 6.0 standard doubles the bandwidth of PCIe 5.0 to 64 GT/s per lane, making it suited for AI workloads and high-performance computing applications that need faster data transmission and lower latency. It also adds flow control unit (FLIT) mode, a lightweight forward-error-correction (FEC) system, and dynamic resource allocation, enabling more efficient and reliable data transfer, particularly for small packets in AI workloads.

As a high-performance interconnect, the Switchtec Gen 6 PCIe switches, Microchip’s third-generation PCIe switch, enable high-speed connectivity between CPUs, GPUs, SoCs, AI accelerators, and storage devices, reducing signal loss and maintaining the low latency required by AI fabrics, Microchip said.

Though there are no production CPUs with PCIe Gen 6 support on the market, Microchip wanted to make sure that they had all of the infrastructure components in advance of PCIe Gen 6 servers.

“This breakthrough is monumental for Microchip, establishing us once again as a leader in data center connectivity and broad infrastructure solutions,” said Brian McCarson, corporate vice president of Microchip’s data center solutions business unit.

Offering full PCIe Gen 6 compliance, which includes FLIT, FET, 64-Gbits/s PAM4 signaling, deferrable memory, and 14-bit tag, the Switchtec Gen 6 PCIe switches feature 160 lanes, 20 ports, and 10 stacks with each port featuring hot- and surprise-plug controllers. Also available are 144-lane variants. These switches support non-transparent bridging to connect and isolate multiple host domains and multicast for one-to-many data distribution within a single domain. They are suited for high-performance compute, cloud computing, and hyperscale data centers.

(Source: Microchip Technology Inc.)

Multicast support is a key feature of the next-generation switch. Not all switch providers have multicast capability, McCarson said.

“Without multicast, if a CPU needs to communicate to two drives because you want to have backup storage, it has to cast to one drive and then cast to the second drive,” McCarson said. “With multicast, you can send a signal once and have it cast to multiple drives.

“Or if the GPU and CPU have to communicate but you need to have all of your GPUs networked together, the CPU can communicate to an entire bank of GPUs or vice versa if you’re operating through a switch with multicast capability,” he added. “Think about the power savings from not having a GPU or CPU do the same thing multiple times day in, day out.”

McCarson said customers are interested in PCIe Gen 6 because they can double the data rate, but when they look at the benefits of multicast, it could be even bigger than doubling the data rates in terms of efficient utilization of their CPU and GPU assets.

Other features include advanced error containment and comprehensive diagnostics and debug capabilities, several I/O interfaces, and an integrated MIPS processor with bifurcation options at x8 and x16. Input and output reference clocks are based on PCIe stacks with four input clocks per stack.

Higher performance

The Switchtec Gen 6 product delivers on performance in signal integrity, advanced security, and power consumption.

PCIe 6.0 uses PAM4 signaling, which enables the doubling of the data rate, but it can also reduce the signal-to-noise ratio, causing signal integrity issues. “Signal integrity is one of the key factors when you’re running this higher data rate,” said Tam Do, technical engineer, product marketing for Microchip’s Data Center Solutions business unit

Signal loss, or insertion loss, set by the PCIe 6 spec is 32 dB. The new switch meets the spec thanks in part to its SerDes design and Microchip’s recommended layout of the pinout and package, according to Do.

In addition, Microchip added post-quantum cryptography to the new chip, which is not part of the PCIe standard, to meet customer requirements for a higher level of security, Do said.

The PCIe switch also offers lower power consumption, thanks to the 3-nm process, than competing PCIe Gen 6 devices built on older technology nodes.

Development tools include Microchip’s ChipLink diagnostic tools, which provide debug, diagnostics, configuration, and analysis through an intuitive graphical user interface. ChipLink connects via in-band PCIe or sideband signals such as UART, TWI, and EJTAG. Also available is the PM61160-KIT Switchtec Gen 6 PCIe switch evaluation kit with multiple interfaces.

Switchtec Gen 6 PCIe switches (x8 and x16 bifurcation) and an evaluation kit are available for sampling to qualified customers. A low-lane-count version with 64 and 48 lanes with x2, x4, x8, x16 bifurcation for storage and general enterprise use cases will also be available in the second quarter of 2026.

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