{"id":33447,"date":"2022-08-02T19:10:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T19:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/gan-powered-thunderbolt-4-dock-wants-to-rid-data-hungry-setups-of-power-bricks\/"},"modified":"2022-08-02T19:10:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T19:10:44","slug":"gan-powered-thunderbolt-4-dock-wants-to-rid-data-hungry-setups-of-power-bricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/gan-powered-thunderbolt-4-dock-wants-to-rid-data-hungry-setups-of-power-bricks\/","title":{"rendered":"GaN-powered Thunderbolt 4 dock wants to rid data-hungry setups of power bricks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <figcaption class=\"caption\"\/>  <\/figure>\n<aside id=\"social-left\" class=\"social-left\" aria-label=\"Read the comments or share this article\">\n<\/aside>\n<p><!-- cache hit 31:single\/related:e9407d24c613188ba4e557058061a48b --><!-- empty --><\/p>\n<p>For power users juggling a high-resolution monitor or two, large data transfers, multiple PC accessories that need power, and, perhaps, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, a Thunderbolt dock can add helpful high-speed ports while powering a supporting PC, like a MacBook .  This helps streamline an office setup but also typically comes with a clunky power brick to add to the mix.  Hyper&#8217;s gallium nitride (GaN)-powered HyperDrive Thunderbolt 4 Hub, which started crowdfunding on Monday, is hoping to change that.<\/p>\n<p>Hyper, a 7-year-old maker of PC hubs, docks, portable chargers, and the like, is seeking to crowdfund a Thunderbolt 4 hub that it claims is the first &#8220;Thunderbolt 4 hub with an integrated GaN power source.&#8221;  The dock is a small, rounded-edge square offering one Thunderbolt 4 upstream port and three Thunderbolt4 downstream ports with up 40Gbps operation and accompanied by zero clunky power bricks.<\/p>\n<p>However, Hyper isn&#8217;t ready to release its dock yet;  it&#8217;s currently undergoing a Kickstarter campaign.<\/p>\n<h2>Kickstarter concerns<\/h2>\n<p>Crowdfunding projects are a risky endeavor, as Hyper admits on the Thunderbolt 4 dock&#8217;s crowdfunding page.  But it&#8217;s worth noting that Hyper has successfully crowdfunded similar projects, like the HyperDrive Duo USB-C Hub made for MacBooks, which it claims is the &#8220;most crowdfunded MacBook and USB-C accessory&#8221; and the HyperJuice 100W GaN charger, which the vendor says is the &#8220;most crowdfunded USB-C charger.&#8221;  The Thunderbolt 4 Power Hub is Hyper&#8217;s 28th crowdfunding project.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunderbolt 4 Hub&#8217;s Kickstarter page says development started in February 2021. The device is said to be Intel-certified and supposed to ship out to first backers this November.<\/p>\n<p>Development is at least far enough along that Hyper was able to give samples to Cult of Mac, (which reported speeds in line with rival Thunderbolt products).<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad_wrapper\" aria-label=\"In Content advertisement\">\n    <span class=\"ad_notice\">Advertisement <\/span>    <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>For those who would prefer the security of a product being official before putting money on the line, Hyper expects the Thunderbolt 4 Power Hub to retail for a hefty price, even by Thunderbolt 4 standards: $300.<\/p>\n<h2>GaN gains<\/h2>\n<p>The secret to the Thunderbolt 4 Power Hub&#8217;s portability is its use of GaN, rather than silicon, semiconductors for a smaller design.  Other Thunderbolt 4 docks, like the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 Hub, may have a small, central dock but also connect to a decently sized power brick before plugging into the wall.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image shortcode-img center full\" style=\"width:100%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"AC power input is 100~240V, 50\/60Hz.\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/hub.jpg?resize=669%2C615&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"669\" height=\"615\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<p>AC power input is 100~240V, 50\/60Hz.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hyper&#8217;s brickless hub, meanwhile, is 4.9\u00d74.9\u00d71.25 inches and 1.4 lbs, according to Cult of Mac (although, final specifications may vary, since the hub is still crowdfunding).<\/p>\n<p>Its single upstream port supports 96 W Power Delivery, which is enough to support many smaller laptops, like the MacBook Pro, but not enough for very power-hungry machines, like a gaming laptop.  Notably, the included Thunderbolt 4 cable is 2.6 feet long, while the power cable is 6 feet long.<\/p>\n<p>The three downstream Thunderbolt 4 ports, meanwhile, can output 15 W of power, which is sufficient for smaller devices, like a smartphone.<\/p>\n<p>Thunderbolt 4 ups Thunderbolt 3&#8217;s 16Gbps PCIe rate to 32Gbps, and Hyper&#8217;s hub claims to be able to make the most of that, which would make it fitting for external storage devices and eGPUs.<\/p>\n<p>Hyper notes that its Thunderbolt 4 Hub can&#8217;t solve the Apple M1&#8217;s and M2&#8217;s multi-monitor limitations.  While the hub claims to support up to one 8K monitor at a 60 Hz refresh rate (or 4K at 144 Hz), or two 6K monitors at 60 Hz, this won&#8217;t work with an M1 or M2-based Mac.<\/p>\n<p>Running two monitors at over 4K and 60 Hz requires the displays and GPU to support Display Stream Compression 1.2 and DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3.  That means you couldn&#8217;t use the LG UltraFine 5K in a dual-monitor setup with the hub either.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also worth highlighting that this is a Thunderbolt 4 hub exclusively, meaning there&#8217;s no other connectivity available.  Plugable&#8217;s aforementioned Thunderbolt hub, for comparison, has a USB-A port for improved variety.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For power users juggling a high-resolution monitor or two, large data transfers, multiple PC accessories that need power, and, perhaps, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, a Thunderbolt dock can add helpful high-speed ports while powering a supporting PC, like a MacBook . This helps streamline an office setup but also typically comes with a clunky power brick &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/gan-powered-thunderbolt-4-dock-wants-to-rid-data-hungry-setups-of-power-bricks\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">GaN-powered Thunderbolt 4 dock wants to rid data-hungry setups of power bricks<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32360,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/hypers-new-thunderbolt-4-hub-has-laptop-charging-power-but-no-brick\/","url_meta":{"origin":33447,"position":0},"title":"Hyper&#8217;s new Thunderbolt 4 hub has laptop charging power but no brick","date":"August 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hyper, the company behind those stackable GaN chargers and powerful battery banks, is running a Kickstarter for a Thunderbolt 4 hub that's truly compact thanks to the fact that it doesn't need a massive power brick like the ones that weigh down other hubs. Instead, it plugs straight into the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17892,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/plugable-usb-c-triple-4k-display-docking-station-review-three-displays-without-thunderbolt\/","url_meta":{"origin":33447,"position":1},"title":"Plugable USB-C Triple 4K Display Docking Station review: Three displays without Thunderbolt","date":"July 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Until recently, I had never used a docking station before, but when Plugable reached out to me to offer the USB-C Triple 4K Display Docking Station (UD-ULTC4K for short) for review, I was intrigued. This is a revised version of the previous dock with the same name, but it's no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Closeup view of the display output ports on the Plugable USB-C Triple 4K Display Docking Station","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.xda-developers.com\/files\/2022\/07\/Plugable-USB-C-Triple-4K-Display-Docking-Station-8-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36710,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/lets-remember-some-cables\/","url_meta":{"origin":33447,"position":2},"title":"Let&#8217;s Remember Some Cables","date":"August 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Image: Gizmodo\/Shutterstock (Shutterstock)Gizmodo is 20 years old! to celebrate the anniversary, we're looking back at some of the most significant ways our lives have been thrown for a loop by our digital tools.Glance at your laptop and you might see a single USB-C cable. The industry is consolidating to a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Amazon Fire 65\" 4K Smart TV","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/c_fill,fl_progressive,g_center,h_180,q_80,w_320\/d2fd3359088df70fed750c90eb9070eb.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/44966f2df320e277a7ffc91552b835f4_original-670x380.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}