PCIe 7.0 is a fact and comes to make “turbo” graphics cards and SSDs
In the coming years
Can you imagine an SSD with a read speed of 512GB / s? Yes, half a terabyte per second! And yet, it is only a matter of time before we have computers with such fast storage media.
Specifically, as part of the PCI-SIG Developers Conference 2022, the standards committee responsible for the hugely popular PCIe announced the initial specifications of PCIe 7.0 , which is expected to deliver to its partners in 2025, with a data rate of up to 128 GT / s.
Of course, even though PCI-SIG is starting to set the specifications from now on, the first consumer products that will take advantage of PCIe 7.0 , such as the new generation graphics cards and the next lightning SSDs, will not reach the store shelves until 2028 .
For now, however, we know some important technical details. In particular, the new version of the interface will provide twice the bandwidth compared to the previous generation PCIe 6.0. According to PCI-SIG, it will allow 512 GB / s two-way throughput via an x16 connection , but without taking into account the coding burden and the impact of the header performance, which will certainly reduce the actual bandwidth.
At the same time, PCIe 7.0 will continue to use the 1b / 1b flit mode encoding and PAM4 signaling technology brought by PCIe 6.0. This is a very significant improvement in both aspects, compared to the technologies used by version 3.0 to 5.0.
Another important advantage of much higher bandwidth per lane is that many devices can now operate with fewer lanes. For example, some cards may suffice with an x4 connection, while previous PCIe versions required x8. This may translate into systems that can support multiple connected disks and other hardware.
Unfortunately, all this speed also comes with a negative for consumers. As we saw with the jump to PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0, the length of PCIe circuits will be reduced again due to the faster signaling rates. This means that the minimum allowable distance (without any additional component in between) of a root PCIe device, such as a CPU, and the end device, such as a GPU, should be reduced. As a result, motherboards will need more retimers and thicker PCBs made from higher quality materials than those needed for current versions of the interface. So PCIe 7.0 support is expected to lead to an increase in motherboard prices.
Of course, the new version will be fully backwards compatible. This means that all motherboards with such ports will be able to work without any problems and with products that have older generation PCIe technology.
