The latest technology news: The first draft review of the PCIe 8.0 specification has been completed, ushering in Version 0.3

On September 18,2025 (local time), the PCI-SIG is announced that the Version 0.3 of the PCI Express 8.0 specification has been approved by the working group and is now available to PCI-SIG

This milestone signifies the completion of the first review draft for the PCIe 8.0 specification, which is progressing according to its planned development timeline for official release in 2028.

According to the previous development conventions of PCIe specifications, PCIe 8.0 will go through Version 0.5/0.7/0.9 and so on before reaching the final version 1.0.

The PCI Express 8.0 specification, which was announced in August this year, further doubles the original bit rate to 256GT/s and delivers a bidirectional transmission bandwidth of up to 1TB/s in a 16-bit configuration, designed to meet the growing demand for high-speed interconnect in future AI/HPC chips.

What's the concept? 

SSDs in the PCIe 8.0 era are supposed to be 1TB/s, and if network speed and flash speed aren't bottlenecks by then, almost every movie or game you save on your web disk can be downloaded to your local computer in seconds.

Of course, these are theoretical data, but realistically PCIe 8.0 x4 SSD drives are already pretty awesome at 128GB/s (one-way), and you know that DDR5-6400 memory bandwidth is only 51.2GB/s, so it's not a dream for hard drives to be faster than memory.

In addition to the incredible speed, PCIe 8.0 has a number of improvements, as follows:

-Review new connector technologies;

-Ensure that the delay and forward error correction (FEC) objectives are achieved;

-Ensure the achievement of reliability objectives;

-Maintain backward compatibility with previous PCIe technology;

-Develop protocol enhancements to increase bandwidth;

-Continue to emphasize strategies to reduce power consumption.

Compare with other specifications

To give you a better idea, here's a simple comparison table:

Bandwidth Comparison Table (PCIe Generations)

The mainstream products in the market adopt PCIe4.0 standard

Tech-Top   USB4 40Gbps M.2 SSD Enclosure

This product connects to the host via USB4 or Thunderbolt interfaces, utilizing PCIe4.0 specifications for transmission. With PCIe Gen 4×4 technology, each PCIe4.0 channel delivers up to 16.0 GT/s speeds, significantly meeting the performance requirements of mainstream M.2 SSDs. 

The active cooling design ensures optimal operating temperatures while maximizing performance, delivering efficient operation and long-term stability!