PCIe 7.0 standard development begins; expected introduction in 2025.
The PCI Special Interest Group (or PCI-SIG) has already declared that it has began work on the next version of the specification, despite the fact that PCIe 5.0’s benefits on the consumer PC market have only begun to be seen. PCI-workgroups SIG’s have begun working on PCIe 7.0, after the introduction of the completed PCIe 6.0 definition earlier this year.
Expect up to 128GT/s (gigatransfers per second) and 512GB/s of bi-directional bandwidth with an x16 arrangement, as is customary. The new standard will be based on 4-level Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM4) and will emphasize power efficiency, low latency, and excellent dependability. Additionally, it will maintain compatibility with prior generations of PCIe.
“With the upcoming PCIe 7.0 definition, PCI-SIG maintains its 30-year commitment to creating industry-leading specifications that push the limits of innovation,” stated Al Yanes, President and Chair of PCI-SIG. “As PCIe technology continues to advance to meet the increased bandwidth requirements, our workgroups will concentrate on channel characteristics, reach, and enhancing power efficiency.”
Table displaying the speeds given by PCIe with each generation based on the number of lanes employed.
Approximately every three years, new versions of PCIe are released, with the objective of doubling the bandwidth with each iteration. Realistically, customers won’t witness the effects of this new technology for a considerable amount of time until the specification is finalized. Keep in mind that SSDs are just beginning to take advantage of PCIe 5.0, and few PCs now support it. This was the 2019 standard, thus it takes time for the industry to adapt to new advances. Initially, the standard is intended to handle 800G Ethernet, cloud and quantum computing, as well as AI/ML.
Even though the results won’t be seen for quite some time, it’s always heartening to know that development is continuing. On a regular basis, new versions of PCIe have been produced, and as a result, PCs have gotten significantly more competent. With PCIe 7.0, this situation should persist for the foreseeable future.
