IN BETWEEN WORK on other projects, I've been running exploratory tests on PCIe SSDs to see how their performance characteristics differ from the SATA drives we've been reviewing for the past few years. This research is part of a larger effort to come up with a new collection of tests for our next-gen storage suite.

Our old suite dates back to 2011, and though it's been tweaked here and there, it's long overdue for a major overhaul. The tests we conceived three years ago aren't ideal for the latest SATA drives, let alone the coming wave of PCIe SSDs. So, I've been testing some newer drives to see what it takes to exploit their full potential.