Future of USB-C?

[nattan]

Ive read a bit on what the USB-C will be able to do, but I wonder if FreeNAS will ever be able to leverage the 40Gbps transfer rate from local network pcs. ( assuming the drives could keep up )

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/blog/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-does-it-all

What do you guys think, will it ever be supported? I was excited for thunderbolt when it came out, still haven't seen it in FreeNAS so I am skeptical, but I do have new hopes with the U(niversal)SB-C reveal.

 

[Ericloewe]

There are a few different topics here:

USB Type C will definitely gain traction as the default USB port format.

USB 3.1 will definitely gain traction. USB 3.0 is kinda stuck in FreeBSD because of some hardware/driver issues with popular controllers.

USB alternate modes will be interesting to see. DisplayPort over USB Type C makes sense, but I imagine there'll be confusion, since the port and associated controller need to be aware of it. Thunderbolt over USB Type C is... a bit weird, since it has significant overlap with USB 3.1 and DisplayPort alternate mode. You're effectively tunneling PCI-e over a more cramped interface, with the option of also tunneling DisplayPort (in a different way than the DisplayPort alternate mode), with the Thunderbolt controllers on both sides also being USB controllers - meaning proper USB 3.1 support on the host side (good) and a USB 3.1 controller on the device side which interacts with the host via PCI-e, tunneled through the Thunderbolt electrical interface which relies on the USB Type C physical layer (headache-inducing).

 

[cyberjock]

This really is a question to ask FreeBSD forums. They'd be the ones to implement it.

 

[Ericloewe]

Theoretically at least, USB 3.1 shouldn't require a completely new driver, since xHCI was designed to be future-proof, so driver support should appear more quickly.

 

[NorCalTechSupport]

On the ESXi platform there have been a few people getting Thunderbolt networking to work.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lamwilliam is a good source of information about Apple technology & ESXi which indirectly merges with FreeNAS.

I wish I had the time & resources to get a new MacPro up and running as an ESXi server and of course I would want 4 Thunderbolt drive enclosures attached.

 

[Greg_E]

Found this from google. Has there been any work on this in the last year? Reason I'm interested is I just bought a new laptop with USB 3.1 C and I'll be doing some video editing. Since this laptop does not have a wired Ethernet, I'm hoping that I could connect directly to a NAS with USB 3.1 C at the 10gbps that it is supposed to support. Not finding much on computer to computer type C connections but it seems like it should be possible. My backup plan would be the fastest wired Ethernet-USB device I can find, but this is less promising because it might only be 1gbps and I may need more throughput depending on the codec in use.

 

[Ericloewe]

Not finding much on computer to computer type C connections but it seems like it should be possible.

It is not possible. There is no protocol that allows for networking over USB (other than USB NICs, but those are very conventional USB devices).

There are also no USB alt modes that do what you'd like. The closest thing is thunderbolt, which does provide an Ethernet emulation mode that is essentially unsupported by anything other than OS X.

The next closest thing is a PCIe NIC attached via thunderbolt.

 

[Greg_E]

Thanks. Too bad that they didn't build in device to device connection like this.

 

[NorCalTechSupport]

I just checked with Other World Computing (my favorite Mac store) and they said Gb Ethernet is about all you can get currently. I asked that they talk to their vendors and see about getting a USB C to breakout box that has Thunderbolt & 10Gb NIC and they liked my idea so who knows?
Here is a USB C to 1Gb NIC solution ( https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Kanex/KU3CGBT/ $24.95 ).
I guess my best advice for faster video editing would be ask Santa for a Mac Pro or maybe an iMac with dual Thunderbolt ports.

 

[Greg_E]

I have a 6th generation i7 HQ quad core with 16gb ram (upgradeable to 32gb), discreet card nVidia GTX965, SSD (2 of them) and 25xx X 14xx resolution display laptop on it's way, no need for Mac anything since my editor of choice can run on Windows or Linux (or OSX). It also has regular USB3 ports that I can probably use with a USB-Ethernet NIC.

Might need to continue working with a proxy workflow for the edit and swap to full res to finish and just keep a gigabit connection going. I wanted to be able to run at least 4 streams at 220mbps each which might go with a gigabit connection, but it's pushing the limits. I have trouble with this at work and the trouble always comes from the 1gb connection, not our storage machine (though it craps out around that same limit from spindle speed too, but it has 10gb fiber to the switches).

A USB-C to 10gb ethernet would definitely be something of interest, even if it only got about 8gb of throughput. A crossover cable directly connected to a storage device would get the job done, can't afford 10gb switches at home (yet).

 

[Arwen]

Even plain USB 3.0 with Type A connectors can support 5Gbps. So I want a 10GBase-T adapter for my laptop as well. Of
course, in my case it would be limited to half of the bandwidth, but still better than 1Gbps.

Even those newer Ethernet standards, 2.5Gbps & 5Gbps over copper might work for me. See IEEE 802.3bz, (aka MGBase-T
and NBase-T). Just need a compatible card for the FreeNAS or a compatible switch, (both of which are starting to show up).

 

[Greg_E]

Cisco has a bunch of stuff with their "Multigig" ports, I think they even have some of the SOHO products with this technology now that are almost affordable.

A true bidirection 10gbps (20gbps total) would be very nice, and probably just down the road if we wait. About 4 years ago when I upgrade my network switches at work, there were few copper 10gb choices, now they are everywhere.