PCIe 5.0 isn’t universal yet, and PCIe 6.0 chips are at testing, but the PCI Special Interest Group is unstoppable. The organization mulled over the PCIe 7.0 last year, and has confirmed the main features with version 0.3. Speeds will double, reaching 128GT/s on a 16-lane connection. That’s 512GB/s without overheads; four times the PCIe 5.0 standard. It’ll use the same PAM4 (Phaseamptitude Modulation) introduced with version 6.0. Since 2017’s version 4.0, SIG has aimed to double PCIe bandwidth every three years. Version 7.0 is expected to be finalized by 2025, with hardware in 2027. You can never have too much bandwidth, especially as PCIe lanes are at a premium. Version 7.0 will give you full PCIe 5.0 speeds on just four lanes.
–CL