NetworkManager Now Supports Link-Local Thunderbolt Networking

[lkundrak]

I don't use NetworkManager. Is there a way to do this through ip link? Will the thunderbolt interfaces even be exposed under ip link?

Yes. To the userspace the device just looks like a regular Ethernet. What NetworkManager helps with is the link-local addressing for. Without it the kernel would handle link-local IPv6 addressing while you could set IPv4 addresses manually (or even run DHCP).

[wizard69]

It's just disappointing that on the vast majority of laptops this will be limited to 20Gb/s due to the way the controller is handled on the chipsets. You wind up with the performance of a 4x PCIe 2.0 link rather than the full speed of a 4x 3.0 link.

Like everything else that will change as the chipsets mature. We have to remember TB3 is rather new especially when you consider stable hardware and software. Im fully expecting to see TB3 support integrated into more SoC. i wouldnt be surprised at all if Apples A12 has TB support integrated in. AMD may even get on board now that Intel has opened the tech up a bit.

Tb may be one if those new technologies that actually takes off. It certainly has the performance and flexibility to do so.

[Sniperfox47]

Like everything else that will change as the chipsets mature. We have to remember TB3 is rather new especially when you consider stable hardware and software. Im fully expecting to see TB3 support integrated into more SoC. i wouldnt be surprised at all if Apples A12 has TB support integrated in. AMD may even get on board now that Intel has opened the tech up a bit.

Tb may be one if those new technologies that actually takes off. It certainly has the performance and flexibility to do so.

I wasn't referring to how it's implimented on the Thunderbolt chipsets but rather than CPU chipsets.

On any U or Y series mobile processors all the PCIe lanes come off the PCH, not the CPU itself, and most vendor's configure the CPU-PCH interconnect in "GT2" mode rather than the full performance "GT4" mode. This limits the link to half speed for power savings, but also bottlenecks your thunderbolt controller.

The face that in these CPUs all the lanes are off the chipsets also means that any high performance PCIe parts like nVME SSDs cut into your thunderbolt performance since they all get bottlenecked over this 4x PCIe link.

[ruthan]

The biggest advantage is speed, which is over 10Gbit/s (see my post above for a 20Gbit/s example) theoretically up to 40Gbit/s.

Sorry but i know too much about computing to believe in theoretical interface specs for its first implementation for some OS, i want to see benchmarks and after that we can speak about it..

[grok]

yep but sometimes stuff lives up to hype and claims. A raw PCIe link between two computers should allow for fast and low overhead networking. This thing is the new Firewire, which was a kind of serial external SCSI and had low overhead and allowed networking between two computers also.
But like Firewire I don't think it will be especially widespread. On mobile chips, down to tablet/smartphone? Why not but keep in mind, such I/O is expensive, power hungry, takes room. So, you will never see a smartphone or netbook with Thunderbolt ever. Even gaming desktops and laptops don't have it.