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Thunderbolt 2 to four PCIe expansion module
- Thread starter FireWire2
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This one has 3:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/xmacproserver.html
... if you don't mind dropping a cool $1500 on one.
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/xmacproserver.html
... if you don't mind dropping a cool $1500 on one.
Magma
Magma offers several Thunderbolt expansion solutions, 3 Slots is the most in one enclosure, but if you need more slots, it is simple to daisy-chain multiple chassis to get to the number of slots you need.
http://www.magma.com/catalog/thunderbolt-2-expansion
Contact me if you have any questions.
Magma offers several Thunderbolt expansion solutions, 3 Slots is the most in one enclosure, but if you need more slots, it is simple to daisy-chain multiple chassis to get to the number of slots you need.
http://www.magma.com/catalog/thunderbolt-2-expansion
Contact me if you have any questions.
Yeah, it's a shame that the price skyrockets if you want even one full-length cardthere's plenty of affordable half-length x8 and x16 chassis options from Sonnet or OWC that start at just $300. I haven't seen even a single-slot full-width option.
Sadly, at least one manufacturer of serious "Pro" level equipment has written off TB.
The fact is that plenty of people would LOVE to offer TB enclosures for GPUs. However, neither Apple nor Intel has anything to gain so they have put a consistent series of tedious roadblocks in the way.
Here is what Cubix had to say last summer in answer to a question from someone wanting to move to nMP:
The Xpander you have is operating at data transfer speeds of 80Gbps bi-directional. A Thunderbolt 2 port is only capable of operating at 20Gbps bi-directional. Neither Intel nor Apple currently support discrete graphics cards residing in an external PCIe slot expansion chassis connected to the host via Thunderbolt.
Cubix had planned to release its own line of Xpanders using Intel Thunderbolt 2 technology during the late June timeframe. Due to a variety of factors, not the least of which is the current lack of Intel and Apple support for discrete GPUs hosted in an external slot expansion chassis or the 20Gbps data transfer speed limitation, Cubix has opted to focus its development efforts on its new PCIe Gen3 x16 (128Gbps data transfer rate) Xpander models plus its HostEngine dual Xeon-based workstations.
Eric Fiegehen
Director, Visualization & GPU Compute Solutions
Cubix Corporation
The fact is that plenty of people would LOVE to offer TB enclosures for GPUs. However, neither Apple nor Intel has anything to gain so they have put a consistent series of tedious roadblocks in the way.
Here is what Cubix had to say last summer in answer to a question from someone wanting to move to nMP:
The Xpander you have is operating at data transfer speeds of 80Gbps bi-directional. A Thunderbolt 2 port is only capable of operating at 20Gbps bi-directional. Neither Intel nor Apple currently support discrete graphics cards residing in an external PCIe slot expansion chassis connected to the host via Thunderbolt.
Cubix had planned to release its own line of Xpanders using Intel Thunderbolt 2 technology during the late June timeframe. Due to a variety of factors, not the least of which is the current lack of Intel and Apple support for discrete GPUs hosted in an external slot expansion chassis or the 20Gbps data transfer speed limitation, Cubix has opted to focus its development efforts on its new PCIe Gen3 x16 (128Gbps data transfer rate) Xpander models plus its HostEngine dual Xeon-based workstations.
Eric Fiegehen
Director, Visualization & GPU Compute Solutions
Cubix Corporation
Based on what i know Thunderbolt 2 is a x4 lanes system, if you are trying to get 8x or 16x, it DOES NOT support. even with Sonnet or OWC - only connects at 4x lanes @ 5Gb/s. The manufacture TB expander tells you it runs @ x8 or x16, that is not true!
Fortunately, my clients applications need 1x or x2 lanes PCIe like
USB 3.1 card : http://www.datoptic.com/ec/usb31-host-for-mac-windows-and-linux.html
eSATA 6Gb/s Support PM: http://www.amazon.com/e-SATAIII-support-Multiplier-works-Windows/dp/B00DJ9SM9A
and Avid Digidesign HD1 Core PCIe with 96 I/O, iLok 2 & Pro Tools
That would be perfect, without wasting any lanes
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Oh I'm aware you only get limited speeds (although as eGPU experiments have shown, in many to most cases that bandwidth limitation on paper doesn't translate to heavy losses in real-world performance.) But I'd be much more interested in an eGPU option for my associated peripheral computers if I could get a double-width, full-length, single-slot chassis. That option doesn't seem to exist, as far as I've seen.
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A shame that Cubix has dropped development of their product. Or perhaps more accurately - it's a shame Apple and Intel aren't supporting this.
Now that I'm offloading my heavy processing to a linux cluster, I could seriously live with a base nMP plus external GPU for occasional gaming at maximum settings.
Now that I'm offloading my heavy processing to a linux cluster, I could seriously live with a base nMP plus external GPU for occasional gaming at maximum settings.
T-Bolt was a solution in search of a problem. Apple had to "create the problem" by removing other ports and PCIe.
The best thing that you can say about it is that it is better than FireWire.
It was crippled by the requirement to carry DisplayPort as well as PCIe traffic.
It was far outclassed by native PCIe (and the external PCIe that's coming to market).
If T-Bolt did PCIe 3.0 x16 it would be a contender. PCIe 2.0 x4 forced to co-exist with an old revision of DisplayPort is lame.
The double stupidity of the situation was started with demanding that TB include DP. Nobody needed or wanted that. I can see bundling audio with video , but Data and Video are not the same thing.
The second part of the stupidity was the pig headedness they have shown about licensing TB out to the lucky few. They have gone out of their way to not allow eGPUs. They allow a wonderful chassis, but limit the power to 25 Watts so that it can't run GPUs, despite the fact that PCIE is supposed to have 75 Watts. That is the $200 option.
If you get a chassis with both power and space for a GPU, it's $1,000.
Think about that. For the honor of using a device at 1/4 (or 1/8th now) of it's bandwidth, you need to pay $1,000 cash. And this for an ability that used to be FREE. (at full speed)
A little company called B-Plus put out a cheap and useful TB2 board called the "TH05". Apple and Intel shut them down like a light. Can't have people making inexpensive and useful TB stuff, it needs to be artificially limited and expensive.
The entire situation is absurd. I have tried to help the eGPU community. Turns out that all recent Apple products have had increasing difficulty using eGPUs. My 2012 rMBP can run one with ease. So far testing with the 2015 MBP has been stymied.
So, take away the ability to upgrade GPUs to keep up with the market, offer TB as a replacement for PCIE, but then restrict TB from doing the thing that most folks would want to use it for. And then wonder why nobody is drinking the TB Kool-Aid.
I guess it's time to buy an iWatch and fiddle with some apps for fun.