NVMe
also: NVMe SSD, M.2 NVMe, Non-Volatile Memory Express
NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a high-speed protocol and interface standard for connecting solid-state storage devices directly to a computer's PCIe bus, offering much faster data transfer than older standards like SATA.
NVMe is a modern storage protocol optimized for flash-based SSDs and other non-volatile memory devices. Unlike SATA drives that communicate through a decades-old interface originally designed for mechanical hard drives, NVMe devices connect directly to the PCIe (PCI Express) slot on the motherboard, enabling much higher bandwidth and lower latency.
NVMe drives typically use an M.2 form factor (a small, rectangular module) and can achieve sequential read/write speeds of 3,500+ MB/s on PCIe 3.0 and up to 7,000+ MB/s on PCIe 4.0. They are identified in Linux as /dev/nvme0n1, /dev/nvme1n1, etc., rather than the /dev/sda naming convention used for SATA disks.
Example: A typical NVMe setup might show up in lsblk output as nvme0n1 with partitions like nvme0n1p1. Modern Linux systems detect and use NVMe drives automatically without special drivers on most distributions.