In this episode of “Ask the Experts”, we talked to Lou Ternullo, Senior Director of Product Management for Interface IP at Rambus. The discussion focused on the rapid evolution of the PCI Express specification in recent years and how the primary driver behind this is AI.
The interview highlighted the latest generation of PCI Express, PCIe 7.0. This new generation doubles data rates from 64 to 128 Gigatransfers per second (GT/s), will support optical interconnects, and includes features for data protection.
Rambus has announced a new family of PCI 7.0 IP solutions that includes a PCIe 7.0 Controller, a PCIe 7.0 Switch IP, and a PCIe Retimer IP.
Check out the full video interview below or skip to read the key takeaways.
Expert
- Lou Ternullo, Senior Director of Product Management, Rambus
Key Takeaways
- AI-Driven PCIe Evolution: The rapid evolution of the PCI Express specification is primarily driven by AI applications, and more specifically generative AI. Industry trends such as the disaggregation of compute storage are also contributing to this evolution.
- PCI 7.0 Advancements: The seventh generation of the PCI Express specification, PCIe 7.0, doubles the data rate of the previous generation from 64 GT/s to 126 GT/s. It continues to support features from PCIe 6.0, including flip mode and PAM4.
- Enhanced Data Protection Features: PCI 7.0 brings enhanced data protection features to secure the transmission of data from server CPUs to endpoints. These include Integrity Data Encryption (IDE) and Trusted Execution Environment Device Interface Security Protocol (TDISP).
- Rambus PCIe 7.0 IP Announcement: Rambus has announced a family of PCI 7.0 Controller IP. This portfolio includes a PCIe 7.0 Controller, host or endpoint, a PCIe 7.0 Switch IP and a PCIe 7.0 Retimer IP.
- Rambus End-to-End PCIe Solution: Rambus offers a differentiated, end-to-end solution for PCIe systems, backed up by over 20 years of design experience. Rambus also offers XpressAGENT, an embedded debug logic analyzer tool, for rapid link bring up.
Key Quote
The PCI Express specification has evolved rapidly in recent years and the primary application category is AI, more specifically generative AI powered by large languages models (LLMs). In addition, there are also some wider industry trends such as disaggregation that are also influencing developments in the PCIe specification.
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