Hacker News Reader

Comment by smoldesu | Hacker News Reader

They could fit 4 USB-C, or 6 MicroSD, or 12 headphone jacks!

But none of that really matters. The elegance of the original model is that you get 4x Thunderbolt 4-capable ports that can run at full-speed and easily interface with any standard USB device. Sure you could add more ports, but you're just diluting the speed of the interface and adding more steps between your device and the laptop's IO controller.

> the fact that nobody has made one in the year this product has been out makes me wary

Did you look?

https://community.frame.work/t/dual-usb-c-expansion-card-moc...

Same problems exist as-usual when you try multiplexing Thunderbolt connections, Alt-mode and PD gets really funky.

View on HN

> Did you look?

I did look. Did you? That thread is a year of people speculating about if this would even be possible and a few prototype renderings. There is no evidence in that thread that anyone has even created a physical prototype, much less an actual working adapter.

> The elegance of the original model

I don't want elegance. I want sustainability, repairability, linux compatibility, and more than four ports.

Edit: I would have much preferred if they had maybe 1 or 2 TB4 expansion slots, then take those other 40Gbit/sec TB4 pci-e lanes and have a bunch of standard ports that are easily replaceable on the motherboard, which all together wouldn't even come close to saturating a single TB4 lane. Add up 3x USB-A/C 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps each, or 5Gbps for USB 3.2 Gen 1), 2.5Gbps ethernet, 100Mbps SD card, and you're still well under the bandwidth for one of the 4 lanes. Then have the other pci-e lane do HDMI 2.0b.

> you're just diluting the speed of the interface and adding more steps between your device and the laptop's IO controller.

I (and likely most people) don't need 4 TB4 lanes at 40Gbps each. The ethernet expansion card that sticks out of the case is max 2.5Gbps. Where is the rest of that bandwidth going?

> I would have much preferred if they had maybe 1 or 2 TB4 expansion slots, then take those other 40Gbit/sec TB4 pci-e lanes and have a bunch of standard ports that are easily replaceable on the motherboard

So... You wanted every other laptop? I'm glad I can have 4 fully capable thunderbolt ports on my laptop (and probably don't want or need half the things you think are "standard"), and unlike what you're asking for here, which is the norm in the industry, that's basically not available on any other laptop.

If you just want a relatively fixable standard laptop that's what ThinkPads are for.

> If you just want a relatively fixable standard laptop that's what ThinkPads are for.

Stop misrepresenting my position. I want repairability and more than four ports. Every other manufacturer (including Lenovo) just gives me more than four ports but no repairability. Framework gives me repairability but only four ports.

I'm a Thinkpad fanboy and have owned literally dozens of Thinkpads. I've enjoyed the ability to swap out parts for the same model. But Lenovo has steadily been going down the Mac route of sacrificing repairability for design and thinness. They are even exclusively soldering RAM and wifi for a lot of their current gen top of the line laptops. And when they update the CPUs for a new generation, they also change a lot of things in the case and peripherals, so it is almost impossible to put a 12th gen Intel motherboard in a laptop of the same model with a 11th or 10th gen Intel motherboard. Hats off to framework for following through with their motherboard/CPU upgrade.

It was never easy to replace ports on a Thinkpad motherboard. I tried and failed to replace the barrel power socket of my X220 Thinkpad because I was clumsy with the soldering iron and had to just get another motherboard. I get the benefits that if your port on the outside of the expansion slot breaks due to cable stress, etc., you can easily swap it out. But imagine something like a pogo pin solution, where you have a standard set of ports on one side (2x USB-A, 2x USB-C, HDMI, SD card, ethernet), but if the port connector breaks, you can unseat the connector from the motherboard and replace it without soldering. Then on the other side, you have to TB4 expansion slots with all the benefits that I recognize come from that approach. Best of both worlds! Why not?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com