Marvell Unveils PCIe Gen7 on 3nm Chips at 128 GT/s

Marvell, a leading fabless semiconductor company specializing in communication and computing chips, has successfully demonstrated PCIe Gen 7 connectivity using its advanced 3nm technology. This latest generation of PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) offers double the data transfer speed per channel compared to PCIe Gen 6, reaching up to 128 GT/s per lane. The enhanced performance makes it ideal for accelerating server platforms, general-purpose servers, CXL (Compute Express Link) systems, and decomposed infrastructure computing architectures.

Unlike PCIe Gen 5, which utilizes NRZ modulation, both PCIe Gen 6 and PCIe Gen 7 require PAM4 modulation for higher data rates. Marvell is expanding its PAM4-based interconnect solutions from Ethernet and InfiniBand to PCIe and CXL links using both copper and fiber cables, addressing the growing need for higher performance interconnects in advanced computing systems.

As AI models continue to evolve, the increasing performance demands of processors and accelerators, coupled with the exponential growth of AI clusters, are driving the need for greater bandwidth and capacity. PCIe Gen 7 enables faster data exchange between processors, reducing the time, cost, and energy required for AI training and inference. PCIe has become the industry standard for in-server connections between CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, and other server components. With computational requirements doubling every six months, PCIe Gen 7 is now a critical technology for supporting AI workloads.

Venu Balasubramonian, Vice President of Product Marketing for Marvell's Interconnect Products, stated, "AI workloads are shaping the future of server interconnects. Our PCIe Gen 7 technology is designed to meet the performance and scalability needs of next-generation AI data centers."

Operating at 128 GT/s per channel, PCIe Gen 7 is optimized to support AI and machine learning (ML) workloads across computing architectures. It delivers high performance, low latency, and energy efficiency—key factors for enabling the next generation of AI clusters, high-performance computing (HPC) systems, and cloud data centers.

Built on 3nm process technology, Marvell's PCIe Gen 7 SerDes design significantly reduces power consumption while enhancing transmission distance and link margin, which is critical for emerging AI superclusters. SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer) and parallel interconnects play a vital role in high-speed data exchange between chips, with hyperscale data center racks containing thousands of SerDes links.