PCI-SIG has just announced a brand-new naming scheme for PCIe internal and external cables, which will be called CopprLink, while the company has also announced new PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 6.0 cables coming 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. Running data at 32 GT/s or 64 GT/s over cables is a difficult endeavor due to noise and signal loss, but in many cases cable usage is inevitable, which is why the industry is developing CopprLink. It is noteworthy that PCI SIG only mentions datacenter-grade applications, and not client PCs or automotive applications. Perhaps, CopprLink will eventually be adopted for these applications as well (because why not?), but for now PCI SIG does not mention them.
Ubiquity of PCIe interface requires constant evolution, not only for the standard itself, but also for its cabling specs. There are PCIe protocol-based Thunderbolt and USB4 technologies for consumer applications and there’s OCuLink for internal and external PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 cabled connections for servers and workstations. CopprLink is a natural addition to the established family of PCIe-based interconnects. 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.
