[_s]

That's actually a interesting point - I wonder if it's possible to license the Thunderbolt tech in some way, and have it hooked up to the ARM Chip; something like what Asus does to give AMD thunderbolt: http://www.eteknix.com/asus-give-am3-boards-thunderbolt-supp...

Saying that - and I hope someone corrects me here if I'm wrong, I was under the impression that Apple & Intel jointly created Thunderbolt (or perhaps it is an Intel only tech), which means Apple may have some sway here.

Just thinking about it more - Thunderbolt is just a protocol driven over USB-C now, so I'm fairly certain USB (3/C) might eventually be able to cover everything Thunderbolt does, or apple takes their "lightning" protocol to replace Thunderbolt, and use that over USB instead of Thunderbolt over USB.

Just musing but it is a very under appreciated aspect to all of this as well!

[ClassyJacket]

I almost posted that link too, but according to this comment, that product was cancelled and never released because Intel refused: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/539kvq/will_amd_cpusmo...

There's still a mention of an expansion card on their site:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboard-Accessory/ThunderboltEX-...

But it's only compatible with ASUS motherboards that already have Thunderbolt. So I'm not sure what the point of it is (just to upgrade from ThunderBolt 2.0 to 3.0 maybe?), and as far as I can tell... still requires intel.

So as far as I'm aware, no product has ever released with Thunderbolt that doesn't use an Intel CPU (and even then, only higher-end ones).

Licensing aside, it may be a technical issue - ThunderBolt is an extension of PCI-express, which just isn't part of the ARM design. I'm not sure how feasible it would be to add it.

[wmf]

Plenty of ARMs have PCIe, maybe even the A9.

[ClassyJacket]

Any examples?

[wmf]

Nvidia Tegra, all server ARMs, all Wi-Fi APs, higher-end embedded SoCs (e.g. Marvell), etc.

[ClassyJacket]

Interesting. I didn't know that.

However, that still doesn't mean Intel will certify anything for Thunderbolt that doesn't use their processors. I still haven't seen any evidence of a certified Thunderbolt host device existing that doesn't have an Intel CPU.

[jschwartzi]

The Freescale(now NXP) i.mx6 has four lanes of PCIe. All that's required is a peripheral on the main memory bus.