Which Framework Laptop 16 model are you using? (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series)
Framework Laptop 16, AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series
Rationale
I want to be able to connect my AMD FW16’s USB-C ports to my ASRock X670E Taichi’s back IO plate’s USB-C ports, in order to expose their internal storages to each other. If that’s infeasible, I want to at least expose the FW’s internal storage to the ASRock.
Research
The top two USB-C ports of the AMD FW16 variant are USB4, [2] and may be TB4, [3] whereas the rest of its ports are USB3.
Unfortunately, this distinction may matter, for whereas Apple’s USB 2.0 and 3.1 controllers appear to support Dual Role [4] (whose support appears to be an exceptional superset of their respective standards), this doesn’t apply to most USB controller [5] + motherboard firmware + OS [6][7][8] combinations.
However, in this question, I’m asking solely about hardware: [9][10]
Question
Consequently:
Do, at least, the FW16’s USB4 ports, support Dual Role?
If so (alternatively, irrespective, if applicable), does this extend to the USB3 ports?
A support representative stated the undermentioned:
I’m not sure what expectation you have with regard to using USB4 to transfer files between devices. If you’re expecting something along the lines of the PCs appearing in each other’s file managers automatically, it may not be quite as plug-and-play as that.
In my own testing the devices, if they have the functionality, will create an ad-hoc wired local network. At this point, you can set up file sharing services in a manner similar to how you would if both computers were on the same LAN. Of course the speed will be much higher, and I saw your question was focused on the dual role functionality. I tested with a Framework 13 and a Framework 16, both connected via port 1. During this test, I copied a 35 GB file to the Framework 16 from the Framework 13 using scp while the Framework 16 was copying an 80 GB directory to the Framework 13 using rsync. The minimum speed for either transfer, even when both were happening simultaneously, was 400 Megabytes/sec. The conclusion of one transfer before the other had no effect on the speed of the remaining transfer.
I know that is not a direct answer to the question, but I hope that it gives you an appropriate frame of reference for what kind of performance you should be able to reasonably expect out of these ports, and whether or not they’re capable of the task you’re looking for.
My response was:
That does fairly directly answer the question, since for a LAN to be generated across USB when they’re connected, I believe they’d need to both support Dual Role.
if you want to share files, consider using thunderbolt networking and some sort of file server (ssh with sftp, tftp, plan ftp, http, rsync) or other file transfer protocol
you can also do this without the thunderbolt part (but it would be slower)