On Tue, Jun 4, 2024 at 6:19 AM Dale <rdalek1...@gmail.com> wrote: > > You ever seen one of these? > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/274651287952 > > Is that taking one of those fast USB ports and converting it to a PCIe > x1 slot? Am I seeing that right? >
No, it is taking a PCIe 1x slot, using a USB cable, and converting it into 4 PCIe 16x slots (likely wired at 1x). I doubt that it is using standard USB though it might be. Thunderbolt can be used to do PCIe over a USB-C form factor I think, and there is some chance this device is making use of that. I've used a similar device to connect an 8x LSI HBA to a 1x PCIe slot on an rk3399 ARM SBC (I needed the riser to provide additional power). In that case it was just one slot to one slot, so it didn't need a switch. To run 4 slots off of a single 1x would require a PCIe switch, which that board no-doubt uses. PCIe is not unlike ethernet - there is quite a bit you can do with it. The main problem is that there just isn't much consumer-oriented hardware floating around - lots of specialized solutions with chips embedded in them, which are harder to adapt to other problems. Another issue is that cases/etc rarely provide convenient mounting solutions when you start using this stuff. Take the motherboard you're using. That has PCIe v5 in one of the M.2 slots, and PCIe v4 in most of the rest of the interfaces. There is no reason you couldn't run all that into a switch and have a TON of 8x PCIe v2 slots to use with older HBAs and such. That one M.2 v5 slot could run 4 8x PCIe v2 slots just on its own. You just need the right adapter, and those are hard to find from reputable companies. There is all manner of stuff on ali express and so on, but now you're mining forums to figure out if they actually work before you buy them. -- Rich
