What’s meant by it having “Native” bifurcation, like does the Framework Laptop have a PLX/PEX MUX Chipset embedded into the motherboard?
Would add cost maybe but also add more functionality to third-party modules that could come to rely on it.
Bifurcation is a feature of the CPU, since that’s where the PCIe root complex is located. No chip needed.
And as far as I know there is no such thing as a “bifurcation chip”, since bifurcation specifically refers to the ability to natively split ports of the CPU. The chip solution would use a switch.
Read about the USB 2.0 A “Hub” Ports a little way up. Possibility to have 2 internal + 2 external? For hiding mouse dongles and such while not using up an expansion card slot.
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That could actually be pretty cool, a recessed usb 2.0 port on the oculink 8i port to keep those little dongles flush with the back plastics
@Seneral , I understand that you are the “developer” in this thread. do you have a timeframe or ideas of when and how to make the design or even boards available?
I’m not really, just the only one with (incomplete!) open source designs.
I’ve recently focused on my main project again so haven’t worked on this further, but I have fixed some gripes with KiCad in regards to custom rules (which is basically a requirement for 6-layer boards), though there’s still one more bug to fix before it’s usable without going crazy.
So as soon as I find some extra time somewhere I will attempt to recreate my current 4-layer design as a 6-layer board which will be a lot better and easier to work with going forward, including 8i port instead of dual 4i port, USB hub, and potentially PCIe redriver/retimers.
Ofc I invite anyone that wants to do an open source version to do just that. I can share my 6-layer template and fixed KiCad build for anyone willing.
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Sounds absolutely amazing - l truly hope someone in the community will build it.
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Would something like this ever be available on the FW marketplace for the 16? I’d really love to have one and I dont have a 3D printer for the back plate.
I think the state of play is that framework staff said here it is something they will “probably” not build themselves, so for now I would bet we have to rely on the community. But framework is definitely aware and very supportive of developments like this, so let’s see.
PS: My money is on Josh and Seneral, fingers crossed.
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Would you provide the model for the back of the expansion bay that includes the ports?
I haven’t made one yet, it’d need some guesswork too (last time I checked). Feel free to try.
As for my board, I’ve not yet decided on a final port layout. I won’t be able to work on it much for the next month either, sadly.
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@Seneral I’m interested in doing a production run of this thing once its more polished. Would love to put work into this project in that way.
Cant help much with the design though and hope you find time for it 
I think it would be a test run to verify (5-10 pcs) and production runs (batches of 20-50?) following. First I have to find out about selling requirements, tax stuff and so on…
Btw, I’m based in Europe. Any pro tips on this?
If you were to do this, would it just be the PCB, or would you be modifying the expansion bays with the modules?
Pcb with soldering only, installing in the bay is too easy. Will try to calculate projected cost first to scope potential interest. Thinking about a Kickstarter campaign…
no, seriously no. absolute waste of time unless it will be going alongside something larger.
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Josh, thank you so much for doing this!
Do you have any source where I can see the module or is it just this thread?
And how can we pay? 
Neat project
Next year TB5 Barlow Ridge arrives and the world at large will quickly shift to / add that on newer mainboards, or maybe as a 4x pcie gen5 card (watch the MiniPC market with gen5 nvme slot lose its mind if you can throw a BR controller onto an nvme card)… tb5 egpu will appear immediately… but oculink for those wanting that little bit extra out of what they have now would be great 
Would be nice but I’ll believe it when I see it. With all previous thunderbolt generations, adoption took quite a while and this time you don’t even have the apple market driving development of peripherals.
Pretty sure that didn’t get any easier and no one did that with any of the previous generations. TB add-in cards were pretty niche and required a lot of main-board support and stuff.
I really do admire your optimism, hope your are right and intel is a bit easier to work with this time around so smaller manufacturers can make actual custom designs and not just have to repackage some reference designs.
I believe tb5 when I see it. 10 year wait somehow diminished my optimism.