What new Expansion Card types do you want to see released?

[Yoav_Rheims]

AI accelerator cards?

[JacobFavreault]

@Daniel_Herr

It looks like some other things may fit, such as a SD and Micro SD reader together

I pray for an SD/MicroSD combo port! I use both frequently, and J expect many others do too. Plus, it would fill up a lot of the void space on the face of the expansion card.

[Shawn_Lewis]

@Yoav_Rheims

AI accelerator cards?

I second this. Now that we have Coral ICs so small I’m thinking that it’s possible now.

Accelerator Module | Coral

[matthew3]

@Yoav_Rheims

AI accelerator cards?

I’m not sure if you’re joking or not… because you can get those in M.2-2230 form factor, which seems awfully close to being plausible… link.

I don’t think I’d bet on being able to directly use that as an expansion card, but a single TPU on a custom PCB is probably at least technically possible. (Whether or not it’s economically viable is another matter…)

[Yoav_Rheims]

@matthew3 I was half joking first but, after some digging, yeah, it’s feasible (thanks @Shawn_Lewis for the link btw). That could be an awesome option for those who have the needs, a little expansion card of such.

[JacobFavreault]

Something like one of these would be great! One made in-house maybe with USB 3+ data speeds and the power transfer of the current cable would be perfect.

Magnetic USB-C Charging Prototype

Made a Magnetic USB-C Charging Prototype that leverages the JSAUX Magnetic 100W USB-C to USB-C Cable. Can’t find a product page for this cable on jsaux website or I would have included it. This prototype could use many improvements that I could go into but uploading more pictures that isn’t allowed for new users so I’ll keep this short. [C4] Edit: Grabcad link if you want to 3D print your own bracket. Interested in any and all thoughts, feedback and questions.

[Cory_Swauger]

Please oh please a full sized SD Card reader. If it could read/write at high speeds that would be a huge bonus, many card readers are dreadfully slow.

Editing photos in Darktable at 3:2 is a dream on this machine!

[Brian_White]

I think I’m going to take back my wish for rs232. I DO use rs232 a lot, but, that always needs a cable anyway, so it’s not like having the serial port right on the machine really saves anything, especially if it’s an rj45.

Even if I was primarily connecting to network console ports that also used rj45, I would still need to carry a special cable around, and so, what’s the difference between that and having to carry an ordinary usb-serial dongle? A slight difference but hardly enough to matter honestly. All in all, I think even though I use it all the time, which would seem to be what should qualify for wanting it built-in, in this case, it doesn’t seem to save much in real world terms.

I want to try to avoid just adding to a pointless list of wishing for every possible thing in the world for no reason, and only ask for things that would actually be worthwhile.

I guess an rj45 serial port would actually be worth building-in if the pinout was software configurable. Then you wouldn’t need to carry a special cable, you could always use any ordinary ethernet patch cord that is already lying around wherever you go, and you can use it whether the equipment is a cicso console port or a Digi port server, random db-to-rj adapter plug, cyclades port server or console server, Equinox console server, Avocent power strip, Synaccess power strip or console server, … etc these things all use rj45 ports for rs232 but all have different pinouts. If it was just a fixed cisco pinout, I think just usb-a or usb-c and the usual dongles would actually be more convenient and flexible all in all, because I would need adapters between that and everything else, which obviates the whole advantage of building it in to avoid needing an external adapter.

[Josh_Cook]

Already being worked on for router management.

[Ethan_Spoelstra]

@random_account

I was thinking of something that used the LPC bus, just like actual legacy ports do via superIO. Maybe a way to switch one of the usbC ports to route LPC, then have a dock with a superIO chip that would contain serial, parallel, floppy, ps/2, ect.

These already exist, though I must’ve bought a case of gold bars given the prices I’m seeing on them now.

https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_electronics/esuprt_docking_stations/dell-legacy-adapter-ld17_user's%20guide_en-us.pdf

[random_account]

@Ethan_Spoelstra

These already exist, though I must’ve bought a case of gold bars given the prices I’m seeing on them now

I have seen these, the issue is they still use the USB interface to connect to the system. Certain functions of legacy ports (such as hardware interrupts, which are important for some parallel port devices) just can’t be done over USB. I was thinking something that used either LPC or a PCI->ISA bridge to have true legacy functionaility, full BIOS and boot support. (USB converters do not have BIOS support, may not work in older operating systems and flat out dont support some things, like 5.25" floppy drives [or a lot of low-level floppy features in general]). having something that could truly be legacy ports would be helpful for things like microcontroller programming, data recovery, ham-radio devices and I’m sure other things that I just can’t think of rn.

[Ethan_Spoelstra]

I’m not positive, but as soon as you switch from BIOS (basic input output system) to UEFI (unified extensible firmware interface) I think a lot of the old ISA/PCI low level interrupt stuff changes drastically, newer systems are designed to avoid some of the huge issues that came from the hardcoded IRQs and memory reservations required by that legacy hardware.

If you want to interact with that, I think your best bet is to find a surviving machine that has the correct hardware and learn how to repair it (if they have survived they might be durable enough to keep on ticking).

[Ethan_Spoelstra]

@random_account with TB3/TB4 you could potentially hook up a PCIe to parallel/serial card in something like the Razer Core X or other external enclosure that isn’t artificially firmware limited to GPUs. I’ve used a Firewire 400/800 card in the Razer Core X this way to interface with some old Firewire hardware that I didn’t want to buy an Apple machine just to interface with.

[henrytr]

If they can fit a 4g modem in a watch (Apple, Samsung, Google, etc) they can fit one in an expansion card.

I know it’s not fair to compare a tiny company like Framework to those tech giants, all I’m saying is that it’s possible.

[Shawn_Lewis]

@henrytr

I know it’s not fair to compare a tiny company like Framework to those tech giants, all I’m saying is that it’s possible.

Actually it is fair. Framework is comprised of the people who make the products for those tech “giants”. Framework is the giant upon who’s shoulders future tech companies will stand on.

[slickmann1]

@Shawn_Lewis

Actually it is fair. Framework is comprised of the people who make the products for those tech “giants”. Framework is the giant upon who’s shoulders future tech companies will stand on.

was
Isn’t Framework made of people who were part of those companies, but no longer are?

[Samuel_Johnson]

1. ethernet, as requested by others, though I would love to see it use one of those latch/hinge styles where it doesn’t need to be oversized but expands when an ethernet cable is plugged in.
2. 2-port type C
3. 2-port USB
4. separate mic in and stereo out ports
5. smart-card reader (i.e. for use with a CAC card)
6. an audio DAC
7. a modest mobile GPU would be a killer module
8. a module with a raspberry pi built into it would be super cool. Not sure what I’d do with it but I want it.
9. a battery module that supplements the laptop’s power

[Rupert_Woods]

I would definitely like to see the full size SD card slot support UHS-II.

[Shawn_Lewis]

@Rupert_Woods

I would definitely like to see the full-size SD card slot support UHS-II.

I was with you on this request until I measured the size of a full-size card and realized that it’s sadly impossible.

[Shawn_Lewis]

A media control expansion card especially for mute.

My keyboard has a media dock on that that has quick access to the mute and volume button.

(shown here next to the frame.work)

I figured that a wheel potentiometer paired with a micro controller would suffice
https://www.amazon.com/Glarks-Potentiometer-Assortment-Control-Adjustment/dp/B08GLDS8DH/