PCI-SIG today announced the formation of a new workgroup to deliver PCI Express (PCIe) technology over optical connections. The PCI-SIG Optical Workgroup intends to be optical technology-agnostic, supporting a wide range of optical technologies, while potentially developing technology-specific form factors.

"Optical connections will be an important advancement for PCIe architecture as they will allow for higher performance, lower power consumption, extended reach and reduced latency," said Nathan Brookwood, Research Fellow at Insight 64. "Many data-demanding markets and applications such as Cloud and Quantum Computing, Hyperscale Data Centers and High-Performance Computing will benefit from PCIe architecture leveraging optical connections."

PCI-SIG is pleased to share the PCI Express (PCIe) 7.0 specification, version 0.3 is now available to members. Version 0.3 of the specification indicates that the first review draft of the specification is complete and has received work group approval. This is an important milestone for PCI-SIG, demonstrating we are on plan for a full specification release in 2025.

The PCIe 7.0 specification is targeted to support emerging applications such as 800 G Ethernet, AI/ML, Cloud and Quantum Computing; and data-intensive markets like Hyperscale Data Centers, High-Performance Computing (HPC), Edge and Military/Aerospace.