PCIe expansion devices on M1 Macs

[dhazeghi]

I know that eGPUs are not supported on M1-based Macs. Does anybody know what the status of other PCIe devices in a PCIe expansion chassis are? For example are any of the following supported (these are for devices that were supported on Catalina/Intel?

• 10G NICs.
• FC HBAs.
• SAS HBas.

Thanks.

 

[Gnattu]

All AQC107 based 10G-NICs should work. The HBAs do not have that much luck, as most built-in kexts are x86 exclusive. ATTO says the universal driver is in the works and will land in the future.

The "SATA HBA" made by ASMedia does work though, I can confirm that ASM1062 based AHCI card works through thunderbolt, but I guess that might be too bad for your requirements.

 

[dhazeghi]

All AQC107 based 10G-NICs should work. The HBAs do not have that much luck, as most built-in kexts are x86 exclusive. ATTO says the universal driver is in the works and will land in the future.

The "SATA HBA" made by ASMedia does work though, I can confirm that ASM1062 based AHCI card works through thunderbolt, but I guess that might be too bad for your requirements.

Thanks, that's good to know. I was actually considering getting an Atto (parallel) SCSI HBA but it sounds like I'd best wait at this point.

 

[unphased]

I have a Sonnet Breakaway 550 eGPU enclosure and I'm having trouble getting this ROG Areion 10G card (AQC107) to work! It does not light up activity lights on either my M1 Max MBP or 2017 Intel MBP.

The Intel Mac does report it as a AQC107 ethernet controller under PCI though.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

A Thunderbolt 10GbE NIC I use works fine on my M1 Mini - and it's a PCI device over Thunderbolt. It just matters if there are drivers for it or not.

 

[unphased]

Seems like I need to spend more time troubleshooting this because according to many sources, AQC107 should be plug and play. It's detected by the system.

 

[chikorita157]

You have to use a AQC107 card that has MacOS firmware. I find out that an Asus 10-gigabit Ethernet PCIE Adapter with an Akitio Node didn't work in Big Sur, but does in Mojave. I had to use a Sonnettech Solo 10G one, which uses the case ethernet controller, but cost a bit more than the Asus one, but guaranteed to work with macOS via Thunderbolt. I don't know why Apple lock out the cheaper one. I want to replace it with the dual 10-G adapter they also have, but it needs M1 compatible drivers, which they say it's coming Q2.

 

[unphased]

Damn. Well I guess that all makes sense. And I get the sense that it may be possible to get this stuff that I have working but maybe I have to spoof device id's.

Anyway I got my Innodisk EGPL-T101 in and it inside this thunderbolt adapter also does not work on my Macs. I will also try this thing in the eGPU enclosure with a pice to m.2 adapter, but I'm not holding my breath.