Unlock 25GB Ethernet on your Mac with Sonnet's Thunderbolt adapter & PCIe card

AppleInsider

Sonnet Technologies is releasing a Thunderbolt adapter and PCIe card for Mac owners to access high-speed networks.

The Twin25G PCIe Card is an easy-to-install low-profile x8 PCIe 3.0 adapter card for computers with PCIe card slots and is also suitable for use in a multi-slot Thunderbolt to PCIe card expansion system. Meanwhile, the Twin25G is a Thunderbolt adapter for computers with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 ports.

Using LC fiber optic cables which are sold separately, Mac users can use either product to add 25 gigabit Ethernet capabilities to their machines. There are now many inexpensive 25GbE switches, but connecting Mac machines to a 25GbE infrastructure is usually expensive.

The Twin25G Thunderbolt adapter is only 4 inches wide by 8.25 inches long by 2.8 inches tall, making it small enough to fit into most workspaces but large enough to support adequate airflow inside its case, allowing the adapter's temperature-controlled, variable-speed fan to run continuously cool and quietly.

For installation in virtually any PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 card slot, the Twin25G PCIe Card has a low-profile, single-card width design and comes with full-height and low-profile PCIe brackets. The SFP28 transceivers with both products make selecting the suitable modules for the job easier.

Pricing & Availability

The Twin25G Thunderbolt adapter and Twin25G PCIe Card are anticipated to be available in early May 2023 from Sonnet and partnering retailers. Mac users can buy them for $899.99 and $599.99, respectively.

Read on AppleInsider

JP234

Big bucks for aging tech. Theoretically, a single fiber-optic cable is thought to be capable of carrying up to 44 terabits per second. That's what pro users should be saving up for!

mattinoz

By Unlock you mean add by means of additional physical hardware, not the more common meaning of unlocking the installed hardware to make it work to some full potential previously not enabled. 

cia

Finally!  10Gbe is such a struggle.  Fingers crossed we get quad channel 100Gbe adaptors soon.

mikeybabes

Got to be the most lazy design on a product since the invention of the house brick 🧱 

Compared to most apple products this looks more like a creation from makeup artist on The Goonies

BiC

JP234 said:

Big bucks for aging tech. Theoretically, a single fiber-optic cable is thought to be capable of carrying up to 44 terabits per second. That's what pro users should be saving up for!

You are correct.  But Light travels 100 times faster than Electricity and the entire mother board is electrical.  You're only as strong as the weakest link.  Fiber Optic is literally light years ahead of it's time and makes my connection lightning fast.  You can't get any faster than Light.

wozwoz

I am struggling to find affordable 10G ethernet switches. Those that I have found basically have two 10Gb ports (1 up and 1down), and the rest are 1Gb ports. If one were to purchase this device, what would you connect it to, to get speeds over 10G ethernet? Are there 25Gb switches around? If we are talking about short distance connections, then (a) we don't need a switch, and (b) we don't need ethernet, and can just use a 40Gb Thunderbolt connection, so presumably we are talking about linking to computers in a different room or building.

JP234

BiC said:

JP234 said:

Big bucks for aging tech. Theoretically, a single fiber-optic cable is thought to be capable of carrying up to 44 terabits per second. That's what pro users should be saving up for!

You are correct.  But Light travels 100 times faster than Electricity and the entire mother board is electrical.  You're only as strong as the weakest link.  Fiber Optic is literally light years ahead of it's time and makes my connection lightning fast.  You can't get any faster than Light.

Light speed may be the impenetrable barrier. But only if the human constructs of time and space are the only possibility in the universe. Using that logic, it should be possible at some point to be able to move all the information in existence instantaneously. That's some deep quantum $hit right there! I'm gonna go talk to ChatGPT!