PCIe is the protocol currently used in the PC world for communication between system components. It provides the link with the graphics card, but also NVMe SSDs and even chipsets use PCIe lines to communicate. While the consumer sector is currently at Gen5, PCI SIG, the consortium behind this standard, has published a 0.5 draft of PCIe 8.0(after version 0.3). Speeds of 1 TB/s are targeted!
PCIe 8.0: a first draft announces very high data rates!
Up to 1 To/s bandwidth :
The objective of the consortium behind this standard is to double throughput from one revision to the next, while maintaining backward compatibility between standards. Currently, with PCIe Gen5, we’re at maximum speeds of 128 GB/s with a full x16 link. The future standard, PCIe Gen6, will offer speeds of 256 GB/s and 512 GB/s with PCIe Gen7. You guessed it, with Gen8 we’re talking about data rates of 1 TB/s with a x16 link!
For the time being, the standard has not yet been finalized, and this draft is intended to measure compatibility, feasibility and implementation methods. It should be pointed out that, as data rates increase to reach this 1Tb/s bandwidth, new methods and techniques will have to be developed and integrated to guarantee the integrity of electrical signals and reduce interference.
But not for the general public just yet:
Unfortunately, it will be a few years before PCIe 8.0 arrives in the consumer sector. At present, the consumer sector is limited to PCIe Gen5, while Gen6 is due to arrive soon in the professional sector. It has to be said that hyperscalers and other data centers have huge bandwidth requirements, particularly for anything to do with artificial intelligence, which requires the manipulation of large volumes of data. It’s a safe bet that this standard will follow the same pattern.