Jun 13, 2025 12:22:00

Final PCIe 7.0 specs released to support AI bandwidth demands with bidirectional transfer speeds up to 512GB/s

On June 11, 2025,

PCI-SIG , the organization that develops the specifications for PCI Express (PCIe) , a connection standard for PC peripherals, released the final specifications for ' PCI Express 7.0 (PCIe 7.0) '. The final specifications for PCIe 7.0 have a maximum data rate (bit rate) of 128 GT/s and a bidirectional transfer speed of 512 GB/s.

PCIe 7.0 Specification Now Available to PCI-SIG Members | PCI-SIG
https://pcisig.com/pcie-70-specification-now-available-pci-sig-members

PCI-SIG® Releases PCIe® 7.0 Specification to Support the Bandwidth Demands of Artificial Intelligence at 128.0 GT/s Transfer Rates
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250611299049/en/PCI-SIG-Releases-PCIe-7.0-Specification-to-Support-the-Bandwidth-Demands-of-Artificial-Intelligence-at-128.0-GTs-Transfer-Rates

PCIe 7.0 spec finalized with up to 512GB/s speeds — PCI-SIG targets 1TB/s for 8.0 as 'exploration' phase begins | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/pcie-7-0-spec-finalized-with-up-to-512gb-s-speeds-pci-sig-targets-1tb-s-for-8-0-as-exploration-phase-begins

'For more than 20 years, PCIe technology has been the go-to high-bandwidth, low-latency I/O interconnect. We are pleased to announce the release of the PCIe 7.0 specification, which continues our long-standing tradition of doubling I/O bandwidth every three years,' said Al Yanez, president and chairman of PCI-SIG, in announcing the final PCIe 7.0 specification.

The newly released PCIe 7.0 final specification has a data rate of up to 128GT/s, unidirectional transfer rate of 256GB/s, and bidirectional transfer rate of 512GB/s in a 16-lane configuration, which is twice the data rate and transfer rate of the previous generation PCIe 6.0.

PCIe 7.0 also supports

PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation 4-level) signaling and PAM4 Flit (Flow Control Unit) based encoding for improved power efficiency while maintaining backward compatibility with previous generations of PCIe technology.

PCIe 7.0 targets data-driven applications with large bandwidth demands, including AI and machine learning, 800G Ethernet, cloud and quantum computing.

'As AI applications rapidly expand, next-generation PCIe technology will meet the bandwidth requirements of data-intensive markets that deploy AI, including hyperscale data centers, high-performance computing (HPC), automotive and military/aerospace,' said Yanez.

PCI-SIG also announced that it has begun the specification of PCIe 8.0, which will be used after 2030. PCIe 8.0 boasts twice the performance of PCIe 7.0, doubling the data rate to 256GT/s and potentially reaching 1TB/s bidirectional transfer speed over 16 lanes.