[geeks] So let's say you wanted something bigger than a Mac Mini...

[Andrew Jones]

On 12/15/2012 05:38 AM, Mark Benson wrote:
>
> Good idea, I like it, the slot is only 8x which would heel the card but you
> could drop something like a 5770 in there and it'd move the dirt pretty well.
> There's a catch though. They don't support any video cards and some hardware
> needs special drivers that are apparently 'Thunderbolt aware' :(
>

Thunderbolt carries a single 4x PCI-E link.  Graphics cards would not be 
a great thing to put in a thunderbolt-based expansion chassis. Might be 
a good place to stick a SAS/FC HBA, or a 10 gbps NIC.

On 12/14/2012 10:17 PM, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>
> Answer, you'd buy this insanely-priced ($1300) expansion chassis and turn
> your Mac Mini into a 1U rackmount system with two PCIe slots (both x4 in
> larger connectors) hanging off a thunderbolt port.
>
> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technologies/XMACMS/

I don't know exactly how this works.   The manufacturer says it supports 
two x4 cards.

Does it mean physical x4, with two lanes active on each slot?

Do they have some kind of nasty multiplexer that makes four lanes look 
like eight ?