Sonnet Technologies today announced the Allegro Pro USB-C 8-Port PCIe Card, the latest offering in the company’s popular line of USB PCIe adapter cards.
What’s New:
The new Allegro card features eight external USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-C ports and fits neatly inside a single-width card space. The Sonnet card is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux computers with an available x16 PCIe slot, and Mac and Windows computers with Thunderbolt ports when installed in a Thunderbolt to PCIe card expansion system with an available x16 PCIe slot.
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What It Does:
Sonnet’s Allegro Pro USB-C 8-Port PCIe Card enables users to connect and power up to eight high-performance USB peripherals to their computer at the same time and provides a full 10Gbps connection through each port. The Allegro card supports USB bus-powered SSD, SSD RAID, and hard drive devices with up to 7.5 watts of power to every port, without the user having to connect auxiliary power to the card or AC power adapters to the devices for operation.
Why It’s Important:
For broadcasters, post, and AV professionals, the ability to move files quickly to, from, and between multiple USB drives can be critical, but their computers often do not offer enough USB ports, or their onboard I/O is too slow. Sonnet’s Allegro Pro USB-C 8-Port PCIe Card makes it simple for users to add eight super-fast 10Gbps USB-C ports to their setups and benefit from significantly faster data transfers—up to 1,000 MB/s per port at the same time. Even in computers with multiple expansion card slots, every slot can be valuable—installing two 4-port adapter cards may not be an option. The Allegro Pro card is the only one available to feature eight USB-C ports, fitting them neatly on a standard full-height, single-width PCIe card bracket. The card’s ports are spaced to enable connection of eight cables—and even USB-C male to USB-A female adapters—at the same time.
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How It’s Distinctive:
Compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux, the Allegro Pro USB-C 8-Port PCIe Card is the only computer card available featuring four USB 3.2 Gen 2 controllers and eight external USB-C ports. With its advanced architecture, the Sonnet card delivers full 10Gbps bandwidth to each of the ports. This is accomplished by providing each USB controller access to two lanes of PCIe 3.0 bandwidth via an x8 PCIe 3.0 bridge chip, plus by implementing advanced data traffic management to eliminate bandwidth congestion. Sonnet designed the Allegro card with a focus on intelligent power management and delivery for powering connected drives through its ports to deliver reliable operation when multiple drives are connected. The card incorporates advanced technologies including independent power regulation that isolates each port to prevent cross-coupled power glitches—such as when a hard drive spins up after connection—that may cause accidental disconnects of other connected devices.
