4 ms·

> If nothing else, there better be some decent PCIe available by then- 8x PCIe 5.0 or better. ARM needs to start doing bandwidth, some day (in places other than

> If nothing else, there better be some decent PCIe available by then- 8x PCIe 5.0 or better. ARM needs to start doing bandwidth, some day (in places other than server class chips); it's been on USB3.0 for a long long time. Its not up to Arm to attach PCIe lanes but the chip makers who have been competing with x86 which already offer plenty of PCIe lanes. So far, only apple has bothered to make an Arm CPU which can compete with "PC" hardware. Hopefully AMD will offer something similar. > Thunderbolt + PCIe would be a great boon for general usability & connectivity. Now that Intel has made it royalty free, now that USB4 already incorporates most of the hard part (packet based switching), it might finally be the time for some real PCIe on chip. USB4 is based on Thunderbolt 3. Given that Thunderbolt 3 is a mess, I don't have high hopes. Look at RapidIO or 1394 for examples of better thought out interconnects and protocols. PCIe cant connect CPU's together in a NUMA system whereas RapiIO can. RapidIO also uses Ethernet physical layers so there's parallel development with Ethernet. I honestly don't like USB or contraptions invented by Intel that are invariably consumer grade with various extensions to satisfy other industries, bolted on.

NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
>So far, only apple has bothered to make an Arm CPU which can compete with "PC" hardware. Also Amazon: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/graviton/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/graviton/
- MisterTea 5y ago
  Those are server processors, I was thinking more along the lines of laptop/desktop performance. Other examples of Arm server CPU's are from Ampere and AMD's discontinued Opteron A series.
rektide 5y ago
i thought it was pretty clear i meant the consumer arm ecosystem in general but thanks for chiming in & clarifying. yup. usb4's ability to transport a variety of protocols across the switched network seems perfect. reviews like the Plugable tb4 hub show video and data intermixing nicely[1]. the complexity seems scary but in my mind it feels utterly & completely justified, and it builds atop the world we have & makes it better, quietly fixes the underpinnings, rather than insisting on re-invention. thunderbolt hasn't been flawless but it's been a niche product, a luxury product, and we'll quickly gain the experience to make it as pleasant bulletproof & flawless as one might hope for. already, reviews like the one i cited don't come with caveats or speed bumps: they show a working, satisfying consumer experience. there's a lot of afraidness of thunderbolt & usb4, but i for one think we ought to dial down our resistances & afraidness. that said, i also think the door is totally open to new interconnects emerging. i'd love to see cxl or gen-z (recently folded into cxl) or opencapi or rapidio or whatever become consumerized. [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/16964/plugable-tbt4hub3c-thunderbolt-4-hub-capsule-review https://www.anandtech.com/show/16964/plugable-tbt4hub3c-thun...

NovemberWhiskey 5y ago

>So far, only apple has bothered to make an Arm CPU which can compete with "PC" hardware. Also Amazon: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/graviton/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/graviton/

MisterTea 5y ago
Those are server processors, I was thinking more along the lines of laptop/desktop performance. Other examples of Arm server CPU's are from Ampere and AMD's discontinued Opteron A series.

rektide 5y ago

i thought it was pretty clear i meant the consumer arm ecosystem in general but thanks for chiming in & clarifying. yup. usb4's ability to transport a variety of protocols across the switched network seems perfect. reviews like the Plugable tb4 hub show video and data intermixing nicely[1]. the complexity seems scary but in my mind it feels utterly & completely justified, and it builds atop the world we have & makes it better, quietly fixes the underpinnings, rather than insisting on re-invention. thunderbolt hasn't been flawless but it's been a niche product, a luxury product, and we'll quickly gain the experience to make it as pleasant bulletproof & flawless as one might hope for. already, reviews like the one i cited don't come with caveats or speed bumps: they show a working, satisfying consumer experience. there's a lot of afraidness of thunderbolt & usb4, but i for one think we ought to dial down our resistances & afraidness. that said, i also think the door is totally open to new interconnects emerging. i'd love to see cxl or gen-z (recently folded into cxl) or opencapi or rapidio or whatever become consumerized. [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/16964/plugable-tbt4hub3c-thunderbolt-4-hub-capsule-review https://www.anandtech.com/show/16964/plugable-tbt4hub3c-thun...