Sonnet Technologies is introducing the Twin25G T5, a Thunderbolt 5 adapter that adds two SFP28 25GbE ports to computers without internal PCIe slots. The package combines Sonnet's Twin25G PCIe card with an Echo SE I T5 expansion system and includes two 25GBASE-SR optical transceivers.
The adapter supports Thunderbolt 5, Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 hosts across Apple silicon and Intel Macs plus Windows and Linux systems. It is backward-compatible with 10GbE infrastructure, and its second Thunderbolt port can connect another peripheral or a display.
Why it matters
Shared post-production storage is moving beyond 10GbE as higher-resolution originals, remote caches and collaborative finishing increase workstation throughput. A compact external 25GbE interface can let Mac mini, Mac Studio and laptop-based systems participate without a separate PCIe workstation.
Sonnet describes controller offload and low host-CPU use, but independent sustained-transfer, thermal and noise results are not yet available. Buyers should also verify host operating-system support, switch configuration, optical cabling and whether link aggregation or redundancy is required.
