PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) is a very high-speed serial computer expansion bus. PCIe based based audio-interfaces have been the sole industry standard for professional multi-track studios, right up until the introduction of Thunderbolt. The PCIe cards themselves are usually sold as a separate product, but have been designed to connect directly to a specific AD/DA convertor box or rack-mounted audio-interface chassis. Sometimes these two devices are bundled to purchase together. Given their extremely high speed and performance, PCIe based systems are capable of handling large numbers of simultaneous audio tracks, and DSP. PCIe was designed to replace PCI and PCI-X. There are still some PCI and PCI-X audio products available, however these protocols are not interchangeable with each other.

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