I am researching if I will be able to use Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 accessories on the current AMD version of the Framework Notebooks. I found an existing thread here in the forum, but experiences are very mixed.
My concrete goal is to understand if I will be able to use TB3 interfaces (I am looking into the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock with 10GBase-T). Anyone can clarify if we will be able to use TB3 interfaces or has experience with an external 10G card?
I use this thunderbolt 3 10G device with a FW16 AMD in Linux and it works.
It appears in “lspci” and not “lsusb”
I use it with a single mode fibre, not copper, but it does work with a copper RJ45 SFP+, but does not report link state correctly with the RJ45 SFP+. I.e. it thinks it’s link up all the time, irrespective of whether a cable is plugged in. The link state works correctly with fibre SFP+.
I use SMF because
Elsewhere on this forum, there have been mixed results with thunderbolt devices that also supply power to the FW16.
The above device does not supply power. It receives its power from the FW16.
I have not tested, but I think only the ports marked as USB4 do the thunderbolt compatibility also.
thank you for your answer. this is a rather pricey setup you have there - i would love to know if others have had success with other configurations
I have plugged various 10gbit cards (intel x520, connectx2 and 3 and aquantia) into my egpu enclosures and they all worked so there is a good chance you’ll be allright.
The old tb2 10gbit nics may not work though.
do you mind sharing which external egpu cases have worked for you?
Non of my setups actually have a case but I think you mean the adapters, I have a few of those. My main one is a th3g4 but I also have the old R43SG-TB3 which is basically an intel reference design ssd enclosure with a fancy m.2 to pcie adabter and a mystery meat chinesium tb3 to pcie adabter also based on an intel chipset.
I had no luck getting anything on TB2 to work through a bidirectional Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter. I couldn’t persuade the IOMMU security to accept or ignore the device. There is security, to stop people plugging in devices and exfiltrating data from your laptop, which is an enforced add-on that breaks Thunderbolt 2 compatibility.
Remember USB4 contains all the specs for USB3 and Thunderbolt 3 but is not Certified(R) as Thunderbolt.
K3n.
That is exactly why I said that XD.
Unsecured dma access is incredibly spicy security wise, kind of a shame though there are pretty good deals on tb2 10gig nics relatively frequently.
It’s a crime, isn’t it, that there’s 10gbit USB 3.2gen2 and 40gbit USB4 but no cheap and effective 10gbE NIC’s.
K3n.
We got usb3 5gbit nics at this point at least so there is that. Would really love if someone made a usb3 10gig chipset even if you could not actually saturate it, 7-8gbit would be nice too.