The PCI-SIG 2022 Developers Conference is happening in California. The PCI-SIG group is responsible for the development of the PCIe specifications, and today announced that the next generation of PCIe 7.0 specifications will be published in 2025.
PCIe doubles the data rate and bandwidth with each generation. This means that PCIe 7.0 will be able to offer a maximum data rate of up to 128GT/s. Ignoring the overhead, PCIe 7.0 offers up to 512GB/s of bidirectional throughput for an x16 connection.
PCie 7.0 will arrive in three years
To put it in perspective, a PCIe 3.0 x16 connection achieves 32 GB/s, PCIe 4.0 64 GB/s, and PCIe 5.0 128 GB/s. It's important to note that these are bidirectional figures . The developers of the PCI-SIG indicate that PCIe 7.0 will be primarily used for the most bandwidth-intensive applications. These include Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, data centers, HPC, and quantum computing.
In the realm of graphics cards, current-generation 16x cards don't fare much better than PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 systems. However, with faster GPUs, emerging technologies, and advancements like DirectStorage , there will be a growing need for increased bandwidth in the future. We also expect to see more graphics cards utilizing x4 or x8 connections. A PCIe 7.0 x2 slot will offer the same bandwidth as a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot.
The faster PCIe connections are much more useful when it comes to NVMe SSDs. Some pre-production PCIe 5.0 drives approach the theoretical limit of 16 GB/s (that's 32 GB/s bidirectional) of a x4 connection. A future PCIe 7.0 x4 drive could offer sequential transfer speeds close to 64 GB/s.
But higher performance comes with greater complexity . Electrical tolerances are becoming tighter, which means more complicated motherboard designs and therefore higher prices. Motherboards from the second half of this decade are expected to be very expensive. It will be a long time before PCIe 7.0 devices reach stores. PCIe 5.0 has not yet become established, and PCIe 6.0 platforms and devices are a couple of years away . It is very likely that the phenomenon of PCIe devices with modern protocols becoming a rarity, aimed at high-end professionals and enthusiasts, will continue.
Source: PC Gamer
