[JoshTriplett]

Thank you for the detailed comment!

You'd definitely need a smart hub chip, yeah. But I don't think you need all the altmodes. No analog audio, for instance. Primarily Thunderbolt, and power.

I'm interested in the volume question; what makes USB-A and USB-C unable to both physically fit in the space no matter how creative you get?

[kmeisthax]

The footprint of the receptacle is wider than the actual plug that goes into it, by a significant amount. It only looks like it'll fit from the outside.

Analog audio was just me being exhaustive, I'm pretty sure none of Intel's chips support that altmode natively. Hell, only like half of the market of USB-C phones support it, which makes it mildly cursed.

[JoshTriplett]

> The footprint of the receptacle is wider than the actual plug that goes into it, by a significant amount. It only looks like it'll fit from the outside.

To what degree is it impossible, and to what degree is it challenging? I've seen the internal side of a USB-A port, and while it's slightly larger, it doesn't seem excessively so.

(Also, as an aside, I do wish that Framework had made the two expansion slots on each side adjacent and allowed for double cards that take up both slots. Two USB-A and one USB-C in one double-bay, for instance.)

> Analog audio was just me being exhaustive, I'm pretty sure none of Intel's chips support that altmode natively. Hell, only like half of the market of USB-C phones support it, which makes it mildly cursed.

Yeah, it's cursed that there exist USB-C-to-headphone-jack cables that physically plug into a laptop but will never work.