MSI announces 'USB4 PD100W expansion card', the first USB4 expansion card on the market

MSI exhibited an expansion card compatible with USB4 / 100W at COMPUTEX 2023. It is said that it is the first officially announced product on the market as a USB4 expansion card.

MSI Rolls Out a Series of New Products A Strong Showing Starts at COMPUTEX 2023

MSI First Motherboard Maker to offer USB4 Add-in Card with 100 W USB-PD | TechPowerUp

MSI Intros USB4 PCIe Expansion Card with 100W Power Delivery
https://www.anandtech.com/show/18883/msi-unveils-usb4-expansion-card-with-100w-power-delivery

'USB4 PD100W Expansion Card' (MS-4489) is an expansion card with PCIe Gen4 x4 interface.

It has two USB 4.0 40Gb/s Type-C ports, one at 100W and the other at 27W, each supporting USB-PD fast charging.

It also has two DisplayPorts.

MSI has not disclosed what it uses for the chip, but tech news site TechPowerUp has confirmed that the card is based on ASMedia's ASM 4242 USB 4 host controller.

TechPowerUp also confirmed the USB4 PD100W expansion card at COMPUTEX 2023 and pointed out that there were two points that were not well understood.

One is a USB 2.0 pin header. A Thunderbolt expansion card is used for input, but since the ASM 4242 used in this USB4 PD100W expansion card natively supports USB 2.0, TechPowerUp expects that it may be for USB 2.0 output. I'm here.

Another point, TechPowerUp also pointed out that although it has a physical PCIe x8 slot, it is wired exclusively for PCIe x4. This could limit compatibility with motherboards that don't have either an open-ended PCIe x4 slot or a PCIe x16 slot wired for 4 lanes of PCIe.

TechPowerUp expects products like this to emerge later this year from other motherboard manufacturers and third-party manufacturers.