Data Object Exchange

Overview

Data Object Exchange is a proposed PCIe mailbox mechanism for transferring NVMe SSD telemetry binary data from drives that are recognized as PCIe devices but not as NVMe devices — the case in which standard OCP telemetry, which relies on NVMe get-log commands, is otherwise unavailable. Under the proposal a host sends a command in through a PCIe mailbox and the drive returns telemetry binary data in the standard OCP format, allowing decode with the existing tool chain. It would need to be standardized in the OCP Data Center specification. Its proponents believe it would be significantly faster than SMBus sideband for out-of-band telemetry transfer — relevant because pulling a 32MB telemetry file over SMBus can take hundreds to thousands of seconds. As of October 2025 it is not a formal OCP work item, but initial conversations have begun.