Microchip Technology announced a demo showcasing an end‑to‑end PCIe Gen 6 storage architecture, pairing its Switchtec Gen 6 switches with Micron's needs. The showcase at the 2026 Future of Memory and Storage Conference highlighted how the Switchtec fan‑out switch serves as a high‑bandwidth, low‑latency interconnect, allowing the drives to operate at Gen 6 speed. The design supports composable and disaggregated system layouts, enabling data‑center architects to scale storage efficiently while maintaining predictable performance.

“Advancing data‑center performance is not solved by pride in a single component,” said Brian Mc Carson, corporate vice‑president and GM of Microchip’s data‑center solutions unit. He noted that the partnership demonstrates how complementary switching and storage strengths can deliver scalable, high‑bandwidth architectures for AI and cloud platforms.

“As AI models grow, the need to move large volumes of data rises,” added Larry Hart, Micron senior director of solutions marketing. “The 9650 SSD—Micron’s first mass‑produced PCIe Gen 6 SSD—paired with Switchtec’s Gen 6 switches shows how a unified ecosystem can boost throughput, lower latency, and improve data movement for AI, HPC and cloud workloads.”

The Switchtec Gen 6 switches run on a 3 nm process, support high lane counts, advanced error containment, and a hardware root of trust with post‑quantum‑safe cryptography. Together, the solution offers a balanced, high‑performance storage fabric optimized for next‑generation platforms.