PCIe to USB to PCIe

[Dieter BSD]

A very small PCIe x1 card with USB 3.0 controller, a USB cable,
and a small pcb with a PCIe x16 slot. Intended to allow using
x16 video cards with x1 slots, and reducing power/space/cooling
demands on mainboard.

Claim: "No Driver necessary"

Can these things possibly work?

If they do, it seems to me that this would be a great way to
add additional general purpose PCIe slots to any computer that has
USB ports, which nearly all do these days. If no driver is needed,
they should work with any OS. Obviously there is a speed limitation,
but many applications can live with that.

Sounds too good to be true. Am I missing something?

http://kaishijia.en.alibaba.com/product/1869213364-221855851/PCIE_PCI_E_Riser_Card_to_USB3_0_and_SATA_Power_Cable_with_PCB_Board_for_Bitcoin_Machine.html

More here:
http://kaishijia.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-221855851/Bitcoin_Mining_cables.html

[Michael Fuckner]

Hi,

I don't see any active components, so I believe it is still PCIe (just
via an USB Connector)

Regards,
Michael!

Post by Dieter BSD
A very small PCIe x1 card with USB 3.0 controller, a USB cable,
and a small pcb with a PCIe x16 slot. Intended to allow using
x16 video cards with x1 slots, and reducing power/space/cooling
demands on mainboard.
Claim: "No Driver necessary"
Can these things possibly work?
If they do, it seems to me that this would be a great way to
add additional general purpose PCIe slots to any computer that has
USB ports, which nearly all do these days. If no driver is needed,
they should work with any OS. Obviously there is a speed limitation,
but many applications can live with that.
Sounds too good to be true. Am I missing something?
http://kaishijia.en.alibaba.com/product/1869213364-221855851/PCIE_PCI_E_Riser_Card_to_USB3_0_and_SATA_Power_Cable_with_PCB_Board_for_Bitcoin_Machine.html
http://kaishijia.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-221855851/Bitcoin_Mining_cables.html
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[Hans Petter Selasky]

Post by Michael Fuckner
Hi,
I don't see any active components, so I believe it is still PCIe (just
via an USB Connector)
Regards,
Michael!

Hi,

Maybe it is running the VESA BIOS code on the cards, making them usable.

Is this device supporting the USB video class perhaps?

--HPS

[Wolff, Nick]

Post by Michael Fuckner
Hi,
I don't see any active components, so I believe it is still PCIe (just
via an USB Connector)
Regards,
Michael!

Hello,

Definitely agree looks like normal pcie extender. It's just using a usb
3.0 cable for the reason that it¹s a very cheap cable that meets the
needed specs for pcie or at least is close enough to work ok. Lots of
things will cheat this way for example some cheap switches will use hdmi
cables as stacking cables.

Probably also doing some cheating in the pinout also to get it to all work
over 8/9 pins provided by usb 3.0. (Hardwiring certain pins in each board
for example there probably hardwire PRSNT#1.)

[CeDeROM]

Its not USB but Thunderbolt [1] that gives you the display and 4xPCIe over
the wire, but its far slower and far more expensive than USB3 :-)

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

--
CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info

[Zane C. B-H.]

Post by CeDeROM
Its not USB but Thunderbolt [1] that gives you the display and 4xPCIe over
the wire, but its far slower and far more expensive than USB3 :-)
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

This is not one of those though. You can find Thunderbolt to PCIe
adapters for
using cards outside of laptops, but this is not one of those though.
This is
just using a USB cable to extend a 1xPCIe in a questionable manner.

[CeDeROM]

Post by CeDeROM
Its not USB but Thunderbolt [1] that gives you the display and 4xPCIe over
the wire, but its far slower and far more expensive than USB3 :-)
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

This is not one of those though. You can find Thunderbolt to PCIe adapters
for
using cards outside of laptops, but this is not one of those though. This is
just using a USB cable to extend a 1xPCIe in a questionable manner.

Yea, good luck with the signalling interferences =)