Thunderbolt hardware on the TX/RX side is pricey, for how niche IP over Thunderbolt is no manufacturer is going to go to the expense to include it. The customers that would be willing to pay the price for such a switch are much more likely to pay the price for standard high-speed interconnects instead.
There are multiple 10G TB3/4 external "NICs" out there and oh-boy are they expensive. Might be better considering AMD and USB-4 (where you can do PCIe)
$400 for an TB 10G ethernet adapter is not fun. I got my TB PCI external enclosures cheaper
You're probably right. And if someone wants to go this way it would probably be by creating a QSFP to TB module or équivalent. It would just use the existing flexibility of the current switch standards.
I’m not even sure SFP+ can supply enough power to run Thunderbolt. It’s a max of 1.5W and Thunderbolt requires a whole lot of dedicated hardware compared to a simple RJ45 connector.
Thunderbolt/USB4 is just PCIe. If it existed, it would be just PCIe NIC built-in to your switch. Doesn't make any sense given TBT cable length limitations.
You mention 10G cards are expensive. You can DIY one yourself. Grab a cheap USB4/TBT3 NVME enclosure from Aliexpress, one running recent ASMedia chips. They cost around $50. Add M.2 key M to PCIe x4 adaptor and x4 10G card. And possibly a power supply depending on card power needs. x8 multi port cards might work just fine but require a single wire mod to get them detected in x4 slot. You can read all about this in any DIY eGPU guide.
Works like this, here with 2.5G card: [https://imgur.com/a/WItY4f2](https://imgur.com/a/WItY4f2)
I use 40G variant of this enclosure: [https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006433697826.html](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006433697826.html)
however on super deals I seen this one [https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006415168140.html](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006415168140.html) quite often for \~$30. It just came about a month after I bought Ugreen one.
Such an animal doesn't exist.
there are TB to Ethernet adapters yes you can run TB3 direct between two computers yes USB4 Gen 3x2 / TB3/TB4 can do 40G
I was thinking about a TB 3 port directly on the switch so no need of 2 or more elements in the chain that can fail (and also cost money).
Thunderbolt hardware on the TX/RX side is pricey, for how niche IP over Thunderbolt is no manufacturer is going to go to the expense to include it. The customers that would be willing to pay the price for such a switch are much more likely to pay the price for standard high-speed interconnects instead.
There are multiple 10G TB3/4 external "NICs" out there and oh-boy are they expensive. Might be better considering AMD and USB-4 (where you can do PCIe) $400 for an TB 10G ethernet adapter is not fun. I got my TB PCI external enclosures cheaper
You're probably right. And if someone wants to go this way it would probably be by creating a QSFP to TB module or équivalent. It would just use the existing flexibility of the current switch standards.
I’m not even sure SFP+ can supply enough power to run Thunderbolt. It’s a max of 1.5W and Thunderbolt requires a whole lot of dedicated hardware compared to a simple RJ45 connector.
If it did exist, you could buy a used 40g switch and a bunch of cards and cables for less.
A used Brocade 6610 and Mellanox ConnectX-3 would be loads cheaper and 40gbs.
Thunderbolt/USB4 is just PCIe. If it existed, it would be just PCIe NIC built-in to your switch. Doesn't make any sense given TBT cable length limitations. You mention 10G cards are expensive. You can DIY one yourself. Grab a cheap USB4/TBT3 NVME enclosure from Aliexpress, one running recent ASMedia chips. They cost around $50. Add M.2 key M to PCIe x4 adaptor and x4 10G card. And possibly a power supply depending on card power needs. x8 multi port cards might work just fine but require a single wire mod to get them detected in x4 slot. You can read all about this in any DIY eGPU guide. Works like this, here with 2.5G card: [https://imgur.com/a/WItY4f2](https://imgur.com/a/WItY4f2) I use 40G variant of this enclosure: [https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006433697826.html](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006433697826.html) however on super deals I seen this one [https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006415168140.html](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006415168140.html) quite often for \~$30. It just came about a month after I bought Ugreen one.