Comcast announced that next week it will begin to introduce the first residential customers in the world to next-generation Internet powered by DOCSIS 4.0 technology. The latest version of DOCSIS technology is a giant leap forward in Internet connectivity that can deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds to customers over the connections that already exist in tens of millions of homes in Comcast markets across the country.

As a part of the launch, Comcast will introduce a new portfolio of symmetrical products for residential customers. Comcast will begin rolling out DOCSIS 4.0 to select neighborhoods in Colorado Springs, CO, and will launch new markets throughout the country over the next few years. Select areas of Atlanta, GA and Philadelphia, PA are expected to begin rolling out before the end of this year.

Zyxel Communications, an industry-leading provider of secure broadband networking, Internet access and connected home products, announced its latest OpenSync -certified device. Available now, Zyxel's EX7710 will ship pre-integrated with OpenSync. Thanks to the certification, this WiFi 6E 10G Ethernet Gateway is ready for use with Plume Design Inc.'s HomePass and WorkPass service suites and is the industry's first 10G level WorkPass OpenSync-certified product.

OpenSync-certified customer premise equipment (CPE) enhances the connectivity experience for smart home subscribers, offering access to a variety of Plume's award-winning services including adaptive WiFi, robust cyber security, advanced parental controls, and more.

Avicena, a privately held company headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, is demonstrating its LightBundle multi-Tbps chip-to-chip interconnect technology at the European Conference for Optical Communications (ECOC) 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland (https://www.ecocexhibition.com/). Avicena's microLED-based LightBundle architecture breaks new ground by unlocking the performance of processors, memory and sensors, removing key bandwidth and proximity constraints while simultaneously offering class leading energy efficiency.

"As generative AI continues to evolve, the role of high bandwidth-density, low-power and low latency interconnects between xPUs and HBM modules cannot be overstated", says Chris Pfistner, VP Sales & Marketing of Avicena. "Avicena's innovative LightBundle interconnects have the potential to fundamentally change the way processors connect to each other and to memory because their inherent parallelism is well-matched to the internal wide and slow bus architecture within ICs. With a roadmap to multi-terabit per second capacity and sub-pJ/bit efficiency these interconnects are poised to enable the next era of AI innovation, paving the way for even more capable models and a wide range of AI applications that will shape the future."

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is ushering in a new era of home connectivity, and new opportunities for service providers, with the introduction of the Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform and its signature feature, Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi technology.

The overwhelming majority of subscribers experience their broadband service through Wi-Fi. In today's broadband systems, the access network from the service provider to the home and Wi-Fi within the home are managed separately - with a quality of service which is nearly impossible to maintain across the entire network, given the diversity of devices, applications, connectivity technologies, and the near-constant change across all these elements.

Amazon announced eero Max 7, its first Wi-Fi 7 mesh system and the fastest, most powerful eero yet. eero Max 7 combines the company's patented TrueMesh networking technology with the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard to dramatically increase speeds, avoid interference from neighboring networks, and improve mesh latency-and with 10 Gigabit Ethernet, it's now possible to download a 4K movie in 10 seconds or a 50 gigabyte video game in less than a minute.

"Connectivity is core to our everyday lives—we stream movies and TV, take video calls for work, play online games with our friends, and use an ever increasing number of connected devices," said Nick Weaver, co-founder and CEO of eero. "With tens of millions of eero devices around the world, we know customers notice even a millisecond delay when streaming a movie or gaming, want reliable connectivity in every corner of the home, and always look for faster speeds. eero Max 7 is the culmination of everything we've learned—this is an entirely new class of eero, built without compromise."

NETGEAR, Inc., the leading provider of award-winning connected products designed to simplify and improve people's lives, today took its award-winning Orbi line to new heights with a powerful new antenna design and exclusive, patented technology that enhance the benefits of WiFi 7. Born of over 25 years of NETGEAR pioneering WiFi expertise, the Orbi 970 Series delivers unparalleled performance, speeds of up to 27 Gbps, a slim, elegant design and high-performance antennas for 360-degree coverage across just about any home, no matter the layout.

With the rise of faster multi-gig internet speeds now available to more households, the growing number of connected devices per family and the ever-increasing growth of bandwidth-intensive applications such as 4K/8K video streaming, HD Zoom calls, graphics-focused work, highly interactive real-time gaming and immersive AR/VR entertainment, the need for faster WiFi speeds, lower latency and more capacity becomes imperative. Enter WiFi 7. While WiFi 6E opened the 6 GHz band as a superhighway for the latest, fastest devices, WiFi 7 builds on that promise by expanding the channels to 320 MHz and unleashing unprecedented speeds and performance. The Orbi 970 Series maximizes the potential of the new standard with innovative, new technology that ensures the benefits are delivered throughout the home, from the front door to the backyard, across all devices simultaneously.

Cable Matters, an industry-leading connectivity solutions supplier, today unveiled a unique USB-C Keyboard, Video, Mouse (KVM) switch dock for two computers. The Cable Matters USB-C KVM Switch Dock lets two devices share a single keyboard and mouse, charger, peripherals, and two ultra high-definition displays over a single USB-C connection. It combines the performance of a USB-C dock, which offers a one-cable connectivity solution, with the flexibility of a USB-C switch, which shares peripherals between multiple devices.

The KVM Switch Dock will revolutionize the work-from-home experience, which is plagued by two common connectivity challenges. Many business-class laptops lack essential display or peripheral ports. Remote workers sharing a workspace with their business and personal devices struggle for space or constantly hot-swap work and personal laptops between shared USB peripherals and monitors.

World-renowned mobile accessory brand Spigen announced its newest series to their charging power accessory lineup: Spigen ArcDock Pro Multi Hub 6-in-1 and Spigen ArcDock Multi Hub 8-in-1.

Spigen ArcDock Pro Multi Hub 6-in-1 has 2 USB-C ports, 2 USB-A ports, 1 HDMI and 1 ethernet port. Compatible with USB4 and Thunderbolt 4, each USB-C and USB-A port is faster than USB 3.0, with a 10 Gbps data transfer speed. Also, the HDMI port of the Spigen ArcDock Pro Multi Hub 6-in-1 supports up to 8K@60 Hz. Lastly, with pass-through charging, it provides USB PD 85 W charging power.

For those looking to build something more professional than your average run of the mill PC, ASUS new Pro WS W680M-ACE SE motherboard might be the thing you've been looking for. The Intel W680 chipset based board sports a mATX form factor and packs in a range of rather unusual features that you more often would find on a board from Supermicro or Tyan than ASUS. One such feature is onboard BMC remote management via an ASpeed AST2600 SoC which features a pair of Arm Cortex A7 cores and a Cortex M3, as well as a dedicated 2D graphics chip. The board also sports a SlimSAS port which supports either four SATA drives or a single PCIe 4.0 x4 storage device, although ASUS doesn't support any cables in the box for the port.

As this is a workstation motherboard, it obviously supports ECC memory and in this case we're talking DDR5 with full transactional ECC support, rather than the on-die ECC that all DDR5 features. Other more common motherboard features include a pair of PCIe 4.0 x4 NMVe M.2 slots, a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot and a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The board also has a pair of 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port and a third 1 Gbps Ethernet port which is connected the AST2600, a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, as well as a DisplayPort and HDMI port, plus a VGA port which again is connected to the AST2600. ASUS promises 24/7 reliability at ambient temperatures of up to 45 degrees C and a relative humidity of up to 80 percent. The board also comes with ASUS' Control Center Express, which is ASUS' IT management software. No word on pricing, but the ATX sized version retails for around US$330, suggesting that the mATX version should be somewhat cheaper.

Dell has added a new display to its UltraSharp range and this time around we're looking at a 38-inch ultra-wide display with a resolution of 3840 x 1600 pixels. The display uses an IPS Black panel with a 2000:1 contrast ratio and it covers 100 percent of the sRGB and REC.709 colour gamuts, as well as 98 percent of the DCI-P3 and Display P3 colour gamuts. Sadly it only has a brightness of 300 cd/m² and it's unclear if this is an 8-bit + FRC or a true 10-bit panel, as Dell only mentions support for 1.07 billion colours. It uses a standard WLED backlight, so no fancy miniLED backlight here and as this display is intended for work use, it also only appears to support 60 Hz refresh rate with a response time of 8 ms in normal mode.

Other features include a built-in KVM switch courtesy of a pair of USB-C ports, with the primary supporting USB PD up to 90 W, as well as DP Alt mode, with the second port only supporting USB 3.2 Gen 2 data at up to 10 Gbps. Other inputs include two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DP 1.4, while the outputs consist of five USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps Type-A ports, two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps ports, a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet jack and a 3.5 mm audio line out jack. One interesting feature is that the built in Ethernet supports network boot, something that isn't a common feature on monitors and it also has the ability to lock the wired port to one of the two connected computers in KVM mode. The stand supports height,swivel and tilt adjustment. The asking price for the U3824DW is US$1,529.99 and it's available from Dell now.

Kensington, a worldwide leader of desktop computing and mobility solutions for IT, business, and home office professionals, today announced the expansion of its portfolio of innovative docking solutions for Microsoft Surface devices, with the launch of the SD5765T Thunderbolt 4 Dual 4K Docking Station. Kensington's portfolio of Designed for Surface (DfS) Thunderbolt 4, USB4 and USB-C docking stations enhance the usability of Surface devices to optimize the productivity of professionals and creatives.

Thunderbolt 4 Dock Adds Speed, Power, Video Options to Surface Devices
Designed to enhance the productivity of professionals using Thunderbolt based Surface devices running Windows, Kensington's new Plug-and-Play SD5765T Thunderbolt 4 Dual 4K Docking Station is an affordable, high-speed dock that enables users to connect multiple 4K monitors and accessories without using adapters.

ASUS today announced the TUF Gaming AS1000, a portable high-performance M.2 NVMe 1 TB SSD with innovative cooling features to ensure ultrafast data transfers. TUF Gaming AS1000 uses a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x1 connection and is compatible with PCs, laptops, and the latest gaming consoles. This SSD has been subjected to stringent durability testing to ensure stored data is well-protected from everyday spills and knocks. Plus, bundled NTI Backup Now EZ software (valued at up to US$35.99) allows for easy data backup and recovery.

Military-grade toughness
The TUF Gaming AS1000 has been subjected to a rigorous battery of durability tests, including the U.S-military-grade MIL-STD-810H drop test and IP68 water-and-dust-resistance tests. Devices were dropped from various heights, submerged in water, and exposed to dust and dirt to ensure toughness, making the TUF Gaming AS1000 more than capable of withstanding accidental bumps, knocks, and spills.

Somewhat unexpectedly, QNAP has entered the high-end video production market with a couple of products that the company was demoing at Computex. First up is the TBS-574TX, which is a high-end, yet compact NAS with 10 Gbps Ethernet and Thunderbolt 4 support. However, what makes this device so unique, is that it features five hot-swappable E1.S drives, which means that video production companies can easily swap between different projects which can be put in cold storage when not worked on. The TBS-574TX is based around a 12th gen, 12 core Intel Core i5 CPU, although QNAP didn't specify the exact model, but it's likely to be a mobile part with native Thunderbolt 4 support. The CPU is paired with 16 GB of RAM, which should make this a fairly snappy NAS overall. QNAP will also offer E1.S to M.2 adapters, but the company is still working on how to implement these with a suitable cooling solution.

For companies that need something faster than 10 Gbps or even 25 Gbps networking to shuffle files around, QNAP also demoed the QSW-M7308R-4X—a model name that just rolls off your tongue—which features no less than four 100 Gbps ports and eight 25 Gbps ports. The key selling point of this fibre based switch is that it doesn't require any user configuration before it can be deployed in a network, even though it can be managed when needed. It also features quieter cooling fans than your average enterprise switch, plus it comes in a much more compact half width 1U form factor. QNAP will also launch the QSW-M3216R-8S8T later this year, which will be an updated version of its current 10 Gbps managed switches, but with around a US$100 lower price tag.

For those relying on their ISP for their router, Askey might have good news for you, as the company had a pair of WiFi 7 routers destined for ISPs on display at Computex. The first model might see some retail brand, as it's a bog standard WiFi 7 router based on Qualcomm hardware. It sports no less than three radios with a combined data rate of 18.6 Gbps, although broken down per radio, that's 1,376 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, 5,765 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and 11,530 Mbps on the 6 GHz band using a 320 MHz wide channel, all radios being 4x4. It also sports a pair of 10 Gbps, one for WAN and one for LAN and an additional three 2.5 Gbps ports. Other features include mesh support, Bluetooth/ZigBee support and remote management for ISPs.

The second model is for ISPs only and is based on a solution as it's using XGSPON to connect towards the internet. It too gets a 10 Gbps WAN side port, but the integrated switch is only Gigabit. The WiFi 7 radios are configured identically to the model above, but Askey has added support for DECT as well as two VoIP ports on this model, requirements that some ISPs have. It's unclear when either device would hit the market, but it's a first sign that WiFi 7 products shouldn't be too far away.

SK Hynix seems to be getting into being a retail brand in the storage market space and its latest addition to its product range looks pretty interesting, in more ways than one. The compact 74 x 46 x 14.8 mm (WxDxH) SSD goes under the name of Beetle X31 and judging by the packaging, it's meant to look like a golden Egyptian scarab, although SK Hynix was clearly not bold enough to follow through with the housing design. Regardless, the small golden puck looks pretty nifty, but it also hides some rather interesting technology under its shell.

Fortunately for us, a Korean YouTuber has already disassembled the drive and based on the specs, it appears to have an ASMedia ASM2362 PCIe 3.0 x2 to USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) bridge chip, which allows the internal NVMe drive to interface with the USB Type-C port on the device. The internal NVMe SSD is also rather intriguing and it'll most likely be found in some other devices. It appears to follow the M.2 2242 form factor, but it's only equipped with a single chip, which is said to house not only the NAND flash, but also the SSD controller and some kind of DRAM, as this is not a DRAM-less SSD. The Beetle X31 will be available in 512 GB and 1 TB sizes, with the 1 TB model retailing for 138,000 Korean won, or around US$103. An optional protective case is also available as an accessory.

For whatever reason, all of the AMD A620 chipset based motherboards that were announced on Friday, are not showing off the capabilities of the chipset and are in fact making it look worse than it is. AMD has no doubt limited the A620 platform, with some limitations that seem arbitrary, but the motherboards makers clearly haven't helped, as they've made the platform look very unattractive, when in fact it could be entirely acceptable, for a budget build. As you can see from AMD's feature matrix below, the company has removed a fair share of features compared to the B650 chipset, but for example, two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports can be implemented. Despite this, only Biostar and Gigabyte have implemented one such port each, with ASUS, ASRock and MSI implementing zero.

Yes, the platform is limited to 65 W CPUs—assuming you want your CPUs boost behaviour to work as intended—which is likely to cause some issues, as it might not be clear to potential buyers that are looking for a cheap motherboard for their system and it's something AMD and its board partners need to communicate a lot better. However, the A620 platform has enough PCIe lanes for two M.2 drives and enough left for all the peripheral connectivity and some PCIe slots, yet most of the boards appear to shun a second M.2 slot for no apparent reason beyond the cost of the physical interface. It looks as if AMD's board partners have decided to try and cut back as much as they can in terms of features that we've ended up with boards that no sensible person should be buying, as the boards are barely fit for purpose. Time will tell if we'll see some better boards down the road, but it would appear that AMD's board partner would rather sell its potential customers a more expensive B650 board, based on the weak line-up of boards that launched on Friday.

Biostar also announced a single AMD A620 chipset based motherboard today in the shape of the A620MP-E Pro, which is yet another microATX based board. Here we're looking at four DDR5 DIMM slots, a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, two PCIe 4.0 x1 slots, one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, a single PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 NVMe slot and even a E Key M.2 slot for WiFi cards, which is actually something of a step up from the competition. Internal connectivity consists of four SATA 6 Gbps ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C header and one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A header.

The rear I/O is home to DisplayPort 1.4, an HDMI port, two USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 port, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 Gbps ports, a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jack powered by Realtek, three audio jacks, WiFi antenna connectors and a BIOS update button. Sadly the audio side is once again utilising the old Realtek ALC897 codec. Biostar has kitted out the VRM's with a heatsink, even though it's a very minimal heatsink. Overall Biostar has done a much more impressive job than MSI here, despite being considered a more budget oriented brand.

Ugreen, the award-winning manufacturer of quality and affordable electronic accessories and consumer technology products, has today announced the launch of its new 9-in-1 USB-C Docking Station. Providing users with 100 W fast charging, 9 different ports to meet most needs, quick file transfer and the ability to extend to up to 2 extra displays, it is a handy and compact gadget to help to work more efficiently. The Ugreen 9-in-1 USB-C Docking Station is available for £199.99/$199.99 on Amazon UK, Amazon US and the Ugreen website.

Featuring a huge 9 ports, the Docking Station simplifies and clears a workstation effectively as it is able to meet most expansion needs alone. Equipped with 2 HDMI 4K, 2 DP 4K, 1 PD 3.0 100 W, 2 USB-A 3.2 (10 Gbps), 1 USB-C 3.2 (10 Gbps) and 1 Gigabit Ethernet, it can cope with almost any daily work that a user might need from it. It is also compatible with multiple systems and devices so can easily slot into an existing setup whether it is Windows or macOS.

Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE and an industry leader in high-performance servers, server motherboards, and workstations, today announced two new workstation motherboards, GIGABYTE MW83-RP0 and MW53-HP0, built to support the Intel Xeon W-3400 or Intel Xeon W-2400 desktop workstation processors. The new CPU platform, developed on the Intel W790 chipset, is the first workstation platform in the market that supports both DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technology, and this platform excels at demanding applications such as complex 3D CAD, AI development, simulations, 3D rendering, and more.

The new generation of Intel "Sapphire Rapids" Xeon W-3400 & W-2400 series processors adds some significant benefits to its workstation processors when compared to the prior gen of "Ice Lake" Xeon W-3300 processors. Like its predecessor, the new Xeon processors support up to 4 TB of 8-channel memory; however, the new Xeon CPUs have moved to DDR5, which is incredibly advantageous because of the big jump in memory bandwidth performance. Second, higher CPU performance across most workloads, partially due to the higher CPU core count and higher clock speeds. As mentioned before, the new Xeon processors support PCIe Gen 5 devices and speeds for higher throughput between CPU and devices such as GPU.

To date, there's something of a shortage of actual USB4 devices on the market and to date it appears that VLI with its VL830 endpoint device controller is leading the market. Although we can't be certain that Anker's new 568 USB4 Type-C hub uses the VL830, the VLI chip has appeared in almost all similar devices on the market and the specs suggest it's built around the VL830. The Anker 568 supports a single USB4 input, fortunately it doesn't rely on a captive cable as it has a standard USB-C port as the input. Thanks to a 180 W power input via a 20 V 9 A power brick, it can charge laptops up to 100 W via the USB-C port.

Outputs consist of one HDMI port capable of 4K 60p output and a pair of DisplayPort outputs, both capable of 8K 30p individually or 4K 60p when both are used. There's also a Gigabit Ethernet port, four 5 Gbps USB-A ports and two USB 2.0 ports around the rear of the dock. The front houses a pair of 10 Gbps capable USB-C ports that can also deliver up to 30 W of power for charging various portable electronics. The MSRP for the Anker 568 is US$299.99.

Sabrent introduced the EC-U2SA, a portable USB-to-SATA and U.2 backplane dongle that's designed for zero interface bottlenecks for SATA. The device uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface with 10 Gbps bandwidth and UASP (USB-attached SCSI), to ensure no bottlenecks for a connected SATA 6 Gbps drive. For SATA SSDs, the dongle can be used on its own, where the drive is powered by the power drawn from the USB port. For HDDs, you'll need to connect an additional power source using a 2-pin DC jack, in the form of an included 10 W power adapter. The U.2 backplane features a PCIe x2 interface, which means even with the 10 Gbps USB upstream connection, there will be heavy interface bottlenecks. Luckily it passes through several NVMe functions to the OS, including TRIM command. Available now, the EC-U2SA is priced at $34.99.

Nokia has today launched the Beacon 10, its first gateway supporting Wi-Fi 6E to provide seamless, high-capacity mesh networking. The Beacon 10 is a true tri-band device which can provide Wi-Fi throughput of 10 Gbps. It includes a 10G WAN interface to pair with 10 Gb/second fiber modems for multi-gigabit services to the home. The new gateway is shown for the first time at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona.

Widespread roll-out of 10G fiber powered by XGS-PON requires upgrades to home and business Wi-Fi to deliver super high speeds to enabled devices. The 'E' in Wi-Fi 6E means faster speeds and lower latencies, ideal for the latest office applications, home entertainment and home working experiences.

Last month, Philips introduced a pair of 40-inch ultrawide monitors targeting office work, both with a resolution of 3440 x 1440 pixels. Now the company has introduced a pair of larger 45-inch displays for the same target market, but with a wider 5120 x 1440 pixel resolution and a 32:9 aspect ratio. The 45B1U6900C and 45B1U6900CH are largely identical as with the 40-inch models, with the differentiator being that the latter has a built-in 5 Megapixel webcam with support for Windows Hello. The other difference being that the 45B1U6900C sports one USB-C and one USB-B port for the KVM functionality, whereas the 45B1U6900CH is equipped with a pair of USB-C ports.

The display panel is of VA type with a refresh rate of up to 75 Hz and a typical response time of 4 ms. It has a brightness of 450 cd/m² and a typical contrast ratio of 3000:1. It's also DisplayHDR 400 certified. Outside of the USB inputs, these displays have two HDMI 2.0 inputs, a DisplayPort 1.4, with the USB-C ports on both models offering DP Alt mode, 10 Gbps data speeds and USB PD support up to 100 W. Both models have four downstream USB-A ports, one which supports fast charging and an additional USB-C downstream port that delivers up to 15 W of power. There's also Gigabit Ethernet and an audio jack, as well as a pair of built in 5 W speakers, making these displays decent docking stations at work. The stand is height adjustable and the display can be tilted and swivelled, but not rotated, for obvious reasons. No pricing is available at the moment, but both models should be available shortly.

Qualcomm Technologies' 6th generation modem-to-antenna solution is the first ready to support 5G Advanced, the next phase of 5G. It introduces a new architecture, a new software suite and includes numerous world's first features to push the boundaries of connectivity including coverage, latency, power efficiency and mobility. Snapdragon X75 technologies and innovations empower OEMs to create next generation experiences across segments including smartphones, mobile broadband, automotive, compute, industrial IoT, fixed wireless access and 5G private networks.

Snapdragon X75 is the first Modem-RF System with a dedicated hardware tensor accelerator, Qualcomm 5G AI Processor Gen 2, enabling over 2.5 times better AI performance compared to Gen 1 and introduces Qualcomm 5G AI Suite Gen 2 with new AI-powered optimizations to achieve better speeds, coverage, mobility, link robustness and location accuracy. The Qualcomm 5G AI Suite features advanced AI-based capabilities including world's first sensor-assisted mmWave beam management and AI-enhanced GNSS Location Gen 2, which uniquely optimize Snapdragon X75 for superior 5G performance.

Yes, you read that correctly, ASUS didn't launch just one, but two W790 based LGA-4677 motherboards today, namely the Pro WS W790-Sage SE and the Pro WS W790-Ace. The main difference here is that the Sage supports up to seven PCIe 5.0 x16 slots—one is a x8 slot electrically—and is designed for the Xeon W-3400 series, whereas the Ace supports five PCIe 5.0 x16 slots and is in turn designed for the Xeon W-2400 series. One downside of these boards is that they might not fit in a standard ATX case, as the Sage follows the SSI-EEB form factor and the Ace the SSI-CEB form factor, both of which are a fair bit wider than an ATX motherboard and with different mounting holes.

The Pro WS W790-ACE also sports eight DDR5 DIMM slots that operate in quad-channel and supports up to 2 TB of RAM if ECC R-DIMMs are used. Furthermore, ASUS has kitted out the Ace with a pair of PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, one 2280 and one 22110 slot, four SATA ports, three slim SAS ports, a Marvell 10 Gbps and an Intel 2.5 Gbps Ethernet interface, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20 Gbps USB Type-C port around the back and an internal header for a second, case mounted port. Finally the board has four USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps Type-A ports around the back and a header for a further two., as well as eight USB 2.0 ports around the back and audio courtesy of a Realtek S1220A based solution with optical S/PDIF out.