On April 22nd, HighPoint unveiled its latest creation, the Rocket 1608A RAID array card, for those who find a single PCIe 5.0 SSD a bit underwhelming. This card can accommodate up to eight PCIe 5.0/4.0 SSDs.
Powered by the Broadcom PEX89048 control chip, boasting 48 channels and ports, and featuring the ExpressFabric architecture for PCIe rapid switching, it achieves speeds akin to RAID 0 arrays.
The only caveat is that if PCIe 5.0 SSDs are used, only four can hit top speeds. For PCIe 4.0 SSDs, all eight are needed to reach maximum velocity.
According to official claims, it can reach up to 56GB/s transfer speeds, a tad shy of the theoretical 64GB/s.
This is primarily due to PCIe 5.0 SSDs being quite sensitive to signal attenuation, coupled with constraints on PCIe channel quantity. Additionally, ensuring optimal signal and stability often prioritizes GPU cards.
Exact pricing details are currently undisclosed.
