• Linux Begins Seeing Early Preparations For PCIe 7.0 While we are on the horizon of seeing PCI Express 6.0 devices, there are already early Linux kernel patches beginning to surface for PCI Express 7.0. • The PCI-SIG officially released the PCIe 7.0 specification i nmid-2025. • PCI Express 7.0 doubles the raw data rate to 128 GT/s to allow for 512GB/s bi-directional communication in a PCIe 7.0 x16 configuration. • PCIe 7.0 retains backwards compatibility with prior PCIe revisions, offers power efficiency improvements, and other enhancements. • It will still be quite some time before seeing any PCIe 7.0 hardware (likely late 2027 to 2028) but already early preparations are underway toward Linux support for the PCI Express 7.0 revision. • Ionut Nechita posted a set of patches this week layout the necessary register and speed definitions as well as the PCIe Gen 7 128 GT/s speed detection and reporting.
Article Summaries:
- Linux kernel developers are already preparing for PCI Express 7.0, the next‑generation interface that doubles the raw data rate to 128 GT/s and offers 512 GB/s bi‑directional throughput in an x16 slot. The PCI‑SIG released the 7.0 specification in mid‑2025, and Ionut Nechita has posted a patch series that defines the new registers, speed detection, and basic bandwidth and thermal controls. The code has only been compile‑tested; no PCIe 7.0 hardware is expected until late 2027‑28. The patches lay groundwork for future Linux support once compatible devices appear.
Sources: