Framework Laptops are now Thunderbolt 4 certified

Statements like yours is why I don’t hang around here much. I try to help and provide advice where possible, but extreme unwarranted negativity is why I don’t enjoy being on this forum. We’re getting pretty offtopic, though.

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@nrp This is amazing news. Can you elaborate on what firmware changes towards Thunderbolt 4 compatibility are coming to the 11th gen laptops.

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GG Framework,

Always nice to see the value of a product being backed by (Official and Respectable) Industry Certifications.

Best Regards,
Varg

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This is all amazing news! Can’t wait for the release :slight_smile:

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This is a quote from the framework subreddit

To offer some insight into 11th Generation Intel Core, Thunderbolt devices may need to be unplugged/replugged when powering on or resuming from hibernate, or after powering on the system.

Also if powering the mainboard from a thunderbolt dock in standalone mode (without battery) The dock or peripherals attached to the dock may not be fully recognized, or may enumerate at the wrong speed

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  • This is a very good news. Intel 12th gen definitely needs BIOS update ASAP. The current is not bad, it works. But since this is a brand new CPU architecture I am certain we will get many improvement in stability and performance from intel microcode. Especially on Linux I and others get microfreezes of all sorts(see forum). Would be nice to be able to deactivate the last E-core (All of them) to test for stability.

  • Concerning thunderbolt it is very welcome aswell, hopefully it will resolve issues like moderne usb charger bugging. Those certifications are certainetly very difficult, but within those thousands of test, there is maybe the case where the power adapter disconnect :wink:

  • When every users is facing one single of those thousands tiny little bugs it makes the difference between your trashable Acer and an thinkpad, Appel or Framwork product.
    Keep on the good work Framework !

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@Greg

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Great news and can’t wait to see the 3.06 FW update. Also seconding an LVFS for Linux users (I don’t much care about remote updates but just being able to use fwupd would be nice).

While off topic, worth mentioning that the forum has an “Ignore User” functionality (Reddit does as well). I’ve only had to add a few users to my list here, but it’s made my experience here a lot more pleasant. Give it a try.

Also, this is Discourse’s default FAQ, but honestly, I feel like it’s worth mentioning it because I think most people haven’t ever read it, and it really does thoughtfully distill a lot of best practices for how to build/act in a online community forum like this one: FAQ - Framework Community

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Hi,
Will this help resolve the problem I and others have had with the DP modules?
Framework support kindly sent me replacement DP modules when the ones delivered with my laptop stopped working after a couple of days. Unfortunately, the replacement modules also failed after a couple of days and I have a support ticket open about it. The USB-A and HDMI modules are working perfectly in the same expansion bay. I wonder if it’s a firmware issue?
Bye,
Tony.

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I’m a little disappointed 11th Gen failed TB4 certification. Not surprised mind you - 11th Gen USB4 / TB4 has been a bit of a point of jank ever since I got the laptop and I figured it would fail - but disappointed nonetheless.

It’s nice that 12th Gen is officially TB4 compatible :smiley:

Will this mean future releases (such as a 13th Gen Intel, for example) might have the little TB4-compatible insignia on the Mainboard or Chassis somewhere?

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Good news for the 12th Gen guys :grinning: but bad news for the 11th Gen pioneers. :slightly_frowning_face:

You’d think the 11th Gen was Intel’s first stab at CPUs or was it Frameworks first stab at laptops?

Ah well. :expressionless:

I’d second that request, it would be useful for 11th-gen owners to know where they can expect limitations in TB4 performance (and implicitly, where they can expect things to work without fault). Pity that some things were not solvable in firmware, but that’s the reality of hardware design, of course :slight_smile:

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Glad to hear FW has official TB4 cert on the 12th gen. As an 11th gen owner, it’s a minor bummer that it’s not official… but honestly not a big deal. Every thunderbolt accessory I’ve used has worked fine for me.

Like others, I would like to know what limitations exist as far as not meeting certification standard just to know what issues I might encounter.

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I’m begining to feel like a second class customer being on 11th gen. I suspect more of the same to keep happening as more board models keep coming. Not cool. At least fix the title of this blog to 12th Generation Framework Laptops are now Thunderbolt 4 certified.

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It seems FW is quite good actually at bios updates up to now. Most consumer laptop do 1 year bios and that s it . Professional like thinkpad do 5 years. If you are in software you know some stuf are hard to achieve. Sometime you think honestely something will take 3 days to develop and after 3 monthes you still don t have a clue of when it will be delivered.
It hard to achieve such an industrial project as FW, they have been fast to deliver a complex product that quite work on its first gen and do work good on 2nd. I also have a faire phone 4 which I believe for a 4th iteration is not as good as FW.

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Can I ask why? Is it because 11th gen has the RTC bug and other unresolvable hardware flaws? What do you mean by “more of the same”? That 11th gen will continue to be left behind? Or that FW will drop support as soon as a replacement come out? As I would agree with the first but not the second. I would also say that 11th gen was a first-gen FW laptop, issues are to be expected, some more serious than others. TB4 certification seems less important so long as the issues are constrained to edge cases, which seems to be the implication.

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I mean it will inevitably continue to be left further and further behind as limited people-power is shifted to newer boards. Another reason I’m not a fan of the one off chromebook edition. To their credit the firmware updates have been steady improvements up to this point on 11th gen. As you mentioned though there are already issues that don’t seem to be on the table as going to be fixed. Can’t imagine this situation improves over time but would be estatic to be proven wrong.

I’m less worried about a sticker from Intel as I am with capable hardware not being fully supported with available features. This has a direct implication on hardware usability as it ages and therefore a direct correlation with a stated goal of Framework.

I agree but it’s also something I would expect the Framework team to know and address accordingly not to just expect customers to upgrade.

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It would be good if Framework set a support/firmware update timetable for each version like Google does for its phones etc.

Does each version get 1/2 or 3 years of firmware updates and hardware availability etc.?

At the moment it feels like most IT depts I’ve worked in, the new sexy hardware arrives and the kids all drop the current ‘old’ stuff to work on the new sexy stuff.

“Hey guys, you still need to finish this…nevermind!”

Well at least not a third worlder exploited down the mines and in the factories making the product :slight_smile:

does this mean I’ll be able to use the screens since the beginning of the boot process? also I have some quirks when resuming from hibernation where sometimes I can use one of the two connected displays, I attribute this to TB not being correctly implemented in the current firmware as well