I’m trying to find more information about connecting multiple Framework desktops together like was shown in the release video but I can’t find anything. Are there technical notes or specifications out there?
I don’t think there’s anything special.
There is one RJ45 port at 5gbps, so we need to find a switch with enough ports that supports at least that speed.
Why not use usb4 point to point?
There was discussion of this at the Launch Event which also set an expectation that more information on this configuration was ‘comming soon’
Here’s a link to the video
I hadn’t thought about using USB C ports but that could be a possibility.
With two 40GB USB C ports, I’m wondering if it’s possible to create a ring-type configuration, chaining multiple devices together…
This could have interesting applications. But we need to figure out how to do it.
It is a thing people do so you can probably find guides for it. You won’t get 40gbit but still a lot more than 10.
Looking at the screenshots and the announcement video where they show off the 4 desktop configuration, they’re clearly making use of USB-4/TB4 point to point as you can see the USBc cables daisy chaining between the nodes, thats how they’re doing the high bandwidth interconnect.
nothing special in the setup, just USB-c being USB-c with some software setup to do the networking configuration and routing so each node can see more than just its direct neighbors
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That article looks like AI-generated spam. usbip is completely unrelated to Thunderbolt networking.
As long as at least one system has the thunderbolt-net kernel module loaded, connecting them together with a USB C-C cable will result in network interfaces appearing. This can be treated equivalently to plugging an Ethernet cable between the two systems. See here: USB4 and Thunderbolt — The Linux Kernel documentation
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Did not release that thunderbolt network work with usb4 … so search USB network (look like usbip work on usb3.. USB/IP protocol — The Linux Kernel documentation) but look relay simple with usb4.
Thanks for pointing it.
USB/IP solves a completely different problem. It allows forwarding USB devices over the network, for if you have a device plugged into one system that you want to use on another system.
The closest equivalent I’m aware of for USB 3 is the xHCI DBC driver. This has major limitations (it’s usually only supported on a single port, for example), and presents itself as a serial port rather than a network interface.
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USB over IP… OK my bad… I really need to go to sleep!!!
quick question, would you be interested in content (maybe a video or a guide) showing how that cluster works? not my area of expertise but would like to share this feedback with the team! please share your suggestions!
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Absolutely! that would be awesome to see a blog post or guide about setting up that cluster. It would make for a really neat read and should also show off a non typical usecase for an ITX form factor desktop.
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Yes please!
This was my question (moreso than exactly how computers are connected, there’s resources out there for that).
More things like:
- How do connected desktops behave? Do they present as a single computer, master/slave(s), server, etc?
- Are resources pooled or assigned?
- Are different configurations compatible (can I connect a 32 GB SKU with a 128)?
As I see it, that would help me decide if/how I could use Framework desktops to fit my needs and how much that would cost me, or if I could get my work to front the bill 
I personally can not answer these questions but know a few people who can, will share your questions internally, thank you!
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