One of the things I have been a big fan of with the Intel version of the Frame.work 13" Intel version is that all of the ports are 100% interchangeable. The fact that they are not on the AMD versions (13" or 16") has been a big detractor. I’d love to see a release where all the ports are 100% interchangeable and/or an Intel version with 100% interchangeable ports having Thunderbolt support.
Sadly this is just a limitation of proccessor specs. There aren’t enough USB4 controllers to go around. Maybe this will be possible with future proccessors though!
For now if people really want to get a AMD proccessor, this is just a sacrifice that must be made I guess!
3 Likes
The problem is processor limitations.
Achieving more than two fully capable ports on current AMD CPUs or four fully capable ports on current Intel CPUs requires significant extra cost and complexity. Even achieving six reasonably capable ports on AMD CPUs required additional hardware to drive the two least capable ports.
In Framework’s surveys they determined that 83% of survey participants wanted AMD CPUs in the Framework 16. So that’s what Framework prioritized, which meant only two fully capable ports.
5 Likes
You could tell AMD that we would want more full-featured ports. Processors - AMD Community. They should at least be trying to match Intel’s 4 full-featured USB4 ports.
1 Like