SlimSAS and MCIO both serve PCIe backplane designs, but SlimSAS is better suited for Gen 4 and mixed protocol systems, while MCIO is preferred for Gen 5 and future high speed PCIe architectures.
PCIe Gen 5.0 places stricter demands on high speed cables because doubled signaling rates significantly reduce signal integrity margins, requiring lower loss, tighter impedance control, and higher quality connectors.
SlimSAS 8i is used in high density server designs because it delivers multi lane PCIe or SAS bandwidth in a compact form factor that supports dense layouts, clean routing, and modern storage performance.
MCIO cables are important because they enable compact, high integrity multi lane PCIe and NVMe connections in dense, next generation server and storage designs.