[digi_owl]

And they leave out the one thing that would be interesting, a wiring diagram.

the C port is interesting in that it provides both USB pins and a set of pins that can be used for a number of functions (Displayport being its out of the gate use).

If this leave the USB pins alone, and make use of the supplemental pins for Thunderbolt, there will be no port confusion. Especially as Tunderbolt is already set up to carry Displayport data anyways.

Then it just comes down to the chipset to negotiate the right protocols.

[bryanlarsen]

That's basically how it works. There's a pair of wires that run USB 2.0. Those are then used to negotiate what the 8 high speed wires and 2 sideband wires are used for.

[grecy]

Wiring diagram and lots more details here http://www.anandtech.com/show/9331/intel-announces-thunderbo...

[lsaferite]

If you read the spec sheet for USB 3.1 and the Type-C connector you'll see they also talk about PCIe in alt-mode as well. DP in alt-mode is the one getting all the press though.