PCIe 7.0 specification enters development stage, planned for launch in 2025

We haven’t even begun to feel the benefits of PCIe 5.0 in the consumer PC market, but the PCI Special Interest Group (or PCI-SIG) has announced the start of development on the next version of the specification. Following the announcement of the final PCIe 6.0 specification earlier this year, the PCI-SIG working group has entered the initial development phase of PCIe 7.0.

As always, the goal is to once again double the bandwidth offered by previous versions of PCIe, meaning you can expect up to 128GT/s (gigabit transfers per second) and 512GB/s of bidirectional bandwidth with x16 configuration. The new specification will be based on 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) and will focus on improving power efficiency while maintaining low latency and high reliability. It will also continue to provide backward compatibility with previous generations of PCIe.

“With the upcoming release of the PCIe 7.0 specification, PCI-SIG continues our 30-year commitment to delivering industry-leading specifications that push the boundaries of innovation,” said Al Yanes, president and chairman of PCI-SIG. "As PCIe technology continues to evolve to meet high bandwidth demands, our working group's focus will be on channel parameters and coverage as well as improving power efficiency."

New version PCIe comes out about every three years, and the goal is always to double bandwidth with each iteration. It's all about pushing the boundaries, and indeed, consumers won't see the effects of this new technology for a long time after the specifications are finalized. Keep in mind that we're just starting to see SSDs take advantage of PCIe 5.0, and not many PCs support it yet. This is a standard introduced in 2019, so it will take time for the industry to catch up with these innovations. First, the specification is designed to support 800G Ethernet, cloud and quantum computing, and AI/ML.

Even if the impact won't be felt for a long time, it's always reassuring to see that progress won't stop anytime soon. New versions of PCIe are being developed at a regular pace, so PCs are sure to become more capable. With PCIe 7.0, this should continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.

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