it took me a long time to figure out what was going on. sharing the results of googling: - logitech has a "unifying" line which allows a small receiver [https:

it took me a long time to figure out what was going on. sharing the results of googling: - logitech has a "unifying" line which allows a small receiver [https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/unifying-receiver-usb.910-005235.html https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/unifying-receiv...] to multiplex a bunch of wireless peripherals, using a single slot - the doohickey in the OP is a little widget that goes inside the framework laptop, and has a USB A slot on the outside - it also has room to plug in the unifying receiver, connecting it to the same input the USB A slot is connected to. the receiver then goes inside the framework, and does not take up an external port - as /u/crote points out, "Fun fact: this is possible because on both hardware level and protocol level USB 1.1/2.0 is essentially completely detached from USB 3.0+. The hub is only in the path of the 2.0 data lines, the 3.0 lines go straight from the laptop to the outside connector."