3 ms·
IIRC Thunderbolt essentially is "PCIE but in a cable"
by madeofpalk 5y ago
IIRC Thunderbolt essentially is "PCIE but in a cable"
- mmastrac 5y agoThat's my understanding as well.
- paulmd 5y agoThunderbolt actually includes a lot of other stuff that isn't just "pcie" in a cable - like USB and DisplayPort streams in addition (at the same time) to the PCIe links. There is also U.2 for shorter links. There are relatively trivial risers (not sure if it needs a chip or not, but either way they're under $30) that let you turn regular PCIe x4 or M.2 x4 slots into U.2 cables. It's intended for the enterprise space but if you just want "pcie in a cable" that's what it does. ExpressCard actually also was a PCIe 1.1x1 or 2.0x1 link as well, and people used risers to break out to external GPUs just as people do with thunderbolt. There are various eGPU setups "GDC Beast" is one I remember?) that are still available for ye olde thinkpad if you want more/better display connectors. Also obviously miners use those shitty USB-based riser cables (they aren't USB, but use USB wiring?) with x1 connectivity. I dunno whether any of those are "legal" according to the PCIe signalling requirements but in practice you can get short runs pretty reliably especially at lower speeds, and good PCIe riser cables can even do 3.0x16 or 4.0x16 capability.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- floatboth 5y agoI've heard it's more like a "complex proprietary MPLS style network layer that can carry PCIe and DP and whatnot". They wouldn't be able to do daisy chaining if it was bare PCIe, but it does sound horrible.