It's always exciting when a hardware standard gets a new version. It's an opportunity for tech to reach new speeds or capabilities. It allows people developing devices for said tech to take advantage of the power they now have in their hands to achieve things that were previously impossible. And while we're looking forward to what 6G will look like or when DDR6 RAM will be released, it's easy to forget about the humble PCIe slot—you know, the hardware that keeps our PCs running.

If you're wondering what PCIe 7.0 is going to look like, then boy do we have some news for you. PCI-SIG has broken the silence and let us know what to expect from this new standard, and if you're hoping that the company has managed to double the bandwidth over 6.0, then you're in for a treat.

PCI-SIG reveals the specifications for PCIe 7.0

In an emailed press release, the company breaks down what we can expect from PCIe 7.0. In case you didn't know, PCI-SIG aims to double the PCIe bandwidth every three years, and this iteration is no exception. The new PCIe 7.0 specification delivers 128.0 GT/s raw bit rate, which is double that of PCIe 6.0's 64 GT/s. You're also getting "up to 512 GB/s bi-directionally via x16 configuration," double that of 6.0's 256 GB/s. Glad to see the tradition still holds strong.

PCI-SIG goes on to explain that PCIe 7.0 "utilizes PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation with four levels) signaling and Flit-based encoding" and will allow for better power efficiency to keep electricity usage down. However, despite PCIe 7.0 setting a new industry standard, PCI-SIG confirmed that 7.0 will feature backward compatibility with previous PCIe standards, so there's no need to rebuy all of your hardware.

The announcement also highlighted how much hardware companies consider AI applications when developing new standards. PCI-SIG lists AI and machine learning as one of its main targets for the new hardware, and even now, it's figuring out what PCIe 8.0 will look like and whether or not it can double what 7.0 has only just achieved.

Al Yanes, PCI-SIG President and Chairperson, is understandably really pleased with what their company has achieved:

“PCIe technology has served as the high-bandwidth, low-latency IO interconnect of choice for over two decades and we are pleased to announce the release of the PCIe 7.0 specification, which continues our long-standing tradition of doubling the IO bandwidth every three years. As artificial intelligence applications continue to scale rapidly, the next generation of PCIe technology meets the bandwidth demands of data-intensive markets deploying AI, including hyperscale data centers, high performance computing (HPC), automotive and military/aerospace.”

So, are you considering slapping a shiny new PCIe 7.0-compatible SSD in your PC? Before you do that, realise that what you're doing may be a littleoverkill. After all, even with our current tech, PCIe 6.0 runs the risk of being too hot for gaming PCs to handle, just like PCIe 5.0.