PCI-SIG, the consortium responsible for determining the PCIe connection standards that we use today, is both currently and already working on a new standard, named CopprLink. It is speculated that CopprLink is being developed to be aligned with future PCIe standards, namely PCIe 5.0 and the unreleased 6.0.
“PCI-SIG announced the new naming scheme for PCIe Internal and External Cables will be CopprLink. The PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 6.0 Internal and External Cable Specifications are currently in development and are targeted for release in 2024”.
There isn’t much else to go on from the brief announcement, but it appears that CopprLink may be geared more towards inter-device communication, and not as a power source. To that end, the PCI-SIG already has Optical Copper Link or OCulink, which is more than capable of supporting up to 63Gbps but in its current state, is unable to support the new PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 standards.
If and when CopprLink officially becomes a reality, there is no doubt that the new connection standard will offer far greater bandwidth capabilities, but as to how much greater, that still remains a mystery. On that note, it is likely that the first point of deployment for the new connectivity standard will be with HPC applications, before trickling down to the general masses.
(Source: PCI-SIG, Phoronix, Videocardz)
