PCIe connectivity continues to pave the way for future-generation graphics cards, storage, and more. The connectivity standard has reigned king for just over 20 years now, maintaining a consistent standard that is both powerful and backward compatible. Now it is revving up for its next-generation PCIe 7.0 specification.
Like many generational hops we’ve seen in recent years (e.g., Thunderbolt, USB, etc.), the new version of the standard will offer twice the bandwidth of its predecessor (PCIe 6.0), making for a significant jump given its capabilities. This will bring the max bandwidth of PCIe to 128 GT/s (vs. 64 GT/s of 6.0) and up to 512 GB/s bidirectionally via x16 configuration.
Although peripherals won’t immediately take advantage of such limits, as the tech on that end will be playing catch-up, it sets a much further out threshold, providing plenty of wiggle room for innovation. This includes graphics cards, storage devices, Wi-Fi/Ethernet cards, video capture cards, and so much more.
The new specification will also focus on improving power efficiency, utilizing PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation with 4 levels) signaling, maintaining backward compatibility, and more. This means it will be the same great interface we have been using all these years, with plenty of support for nearly every PCIe peripheral on the market, including what’s to come.
PCI-SIG, the group behind the standard, says: “PCIe 7.0 technology is a high-bandwidth, low-latency I/O interconnect targeted to support data-intensive, emerging applications, including 800G Ethernet, AI/ML, Cloud and Quantum Computing, Hyperscale Data Centers, High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Military/Aerospace.“
Although a specific release date isn’t set just yet for the new specification of PCIe, the PCI-SIG group says it is on track for a 2025 rollout. It is currently within its member review phases.
