The totally next-gen PCI Express (PCIe) 7.0 specification has been announced today at the PCI-SIG Developers Conference 2022, ushering in yet another round of doubling the data rate: now up to 128GB/sec.

The new PCIe 7.0 x16 standard will offer up to 512GB/sec bi-directionally, and while your GPU would be sitting on its hands at that point -- graphics cards of today don't need the wicked fast upgraded speeds we're getting with PCIe 5.0, PCIe 6.0, and the just-announced PCIe 7.0 -- the new speeds will be a boon for HPC, AI, and supercomputers.
This means we're going to see next-gen PCIe 7.0 x4 NVMe M.2 SSD of the future pushing a huge 128GB/sec -- up from the 64GB/sec on PCIe 6.0 x4, the 32GB/sec on PCIe 5.0 x4, the 16GB/sec on PCIe 4.0 x4, and 8GB/sec on PCIe 3.0 x4. 128 gigabytes per second, transferring on that tiny M.2 SSD on your motherboard.
- Delivering 128 GT/s raw bit rate and up to 512 GB/s bi-directionally via x16 configuration
- Utilizing PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation with 4 levels) signaling
- Focusing on the channel parameters and reach
- Continuing to deliver the low-latency and high-reliability targets
- Improving power efficiency
- Maintaining backwards compatibility with all previous generations of PCIe technology
Eat that, WD Raptor HDDs... no 10K RPM... pure silence. Although I'm sure they're going to need some hefty heat sinks on new SSDs. Phison recently talked about PCIe 5.0, PCIe 6.0, and PCIe 7.0 SSDs of the future, saying that active cooling on future PCIe 6.0 SSDs will be mandatory... so expect active cooling on PCIe 7.0 SSDs.

Al Yanes, PCI-SIG President, and Chairperson said: "With the forthcoming PCIe 7.0 specification, PCI-SIG continues our 30-year commitment to delivering industry-leading specifications that push the boundaries of innovation. As PCIe technology continues to evolve to meet the high bandwidth demands, our workgroups' focus will be on channel parameters and reach and improving power efficiency".
PCI-SIG explained: "For the past 30 years, PCI-SIG has been at the forefront of technology innovation. Our PCI Express (PCIe) specification has maintained its position as the established de-facto interconnect of choice and a crucial component of the compute continuum. At the PCI-SIG Developers Conference 2022, we celebrated our 30-year anniversary with the announcement of the next evolution of PCIe technology: PCIe 7.0 specification. The forthcoming PCIe 7.0 specification is planned to once again deliver a speed increase in three years, expanding the data rate of the recently released PCIe 6.0 specification to 128 GT/s. The PCIe 7.0 specification is targeted for release to members in 2025".
- Read more: PCIe 6.0 spec detailed: next-gen PCIe 6.0 SSDs up to 64GB/sec reads
- Read more: PCIe 6.0 specification teased: ushers in 32GB/sec SSDs of the future
"Companies planning their roadmaps can include the next generation of PCIe technology with the assurance that it will meet their needs for a reliable, high-speed, low latency I/O interconnect. PCIe 7.0 technology will expand the PCI-SIG roadmap to include data-intensive applications and markets, including 800 Gig Ethernet, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), High-Performance Computing (HPC), Quantum Computing, Hyperscale Data Centers, and Cloud".