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Who knows when/whether they will drop Thunderbolt - but however that shakes out, its entirely independent from the switch in processor architecture. Just like an iPhone with an Intel modem. Not at all related.
 
Sure, but don’t think of the DTK as a real product. It’s essentially an iPad Pro with more RAM.

I think the next iMac will be a more powerful iPad with more ram and the new A14 chip. That's the idea one class of cpu for all their product from iPhone to iMac. Developers will create one software for them all.
 
I'm sure they'll support Thunderbolt through USB4: https://www.usb.org/usb4

The developer Mac Mini probably is too early for USB4, and they omitted Thunderbolt 3 because I'm guessing their platform doesn't work with Thunderbolt chips, but they have time to work USB4 into the new ARM Macs.
 
I don’t think we’ll see the end of Thunderbolt soon because the technology to replace it is still under works and even if USB C4 turns out in 2021 or 22, it is quite hard to predict whether it will have all the features and configurations necessary to dethrone Thunderbolt 3 and become the next big sensation in the connectivity port solutions right away. As mentioned, Intel does allow Thunderbolt 3 to be used on other chipsets, so we should not see the end of it anytime soon.

Happy to be a part of this discussion and to note, I use Thunderbolt 3 for all my video file transfers and I’ve always been a huge fan of high speed transfer technology.
 
The first Mac mini with Apple Bionics chip won't include Thunderbolt 3, only USB.

I expect future Apple silicon Macs will have Thunderbolt, but I also expected the developer kit not to. It's not a product. It's a dev platform. No need spending money on a Thunderbolt controller for it, when it's not on the chipset. When they actually make a product for customers that money on a controller chip can be justified. But for the DTK it's only really the chip that's important
 
Here is something I have been thinking about. What thunderbolt devices will be supported? eGPU? Obviously a TB3 drive is going to work but I don't know how a RX580 will work with Apple Silicon.
 
Why do you think it won't work?
Maybe it will! Just wondering out loud here. Hoping others have more insight.

I think most of the video cards we use today in eGPUs firmware are x86 specific, right? So I don't know that it will be easily translate to work with these new chips.

Will we go back to the Power PC days of Mac-specific video cards and flashed intel cards? Will we have some Blackmagic Mac Silicon eGPUs?

Or will my current RX570 work without any modifications when I plug it into the thunderbolt port on my new silicon Mac Mini?
 
Maybe it will! Just wondering out loud here. Hoping others have more insight.

I think most of the video cards we use today in eGPUs firmware are x86 specific, right? So I don't know that it will be easily translate to work with these new chips.

Will we go back to the Power PC days of Mac-specific video cards and flashed intel cards? Will we have some Blackmagic Mac Silicon eGPUs?

Or will my current RX570 work without any modifications when I plug it into the thunderbolt port on my new silicon Mac Mini?
Or, our cards will be 'outdated' by that time and no longer recommended. Sigh.
 
The first Mac mini with Apple Bionics chip won't include Thunderbolt 3, only USB.

And what evidence do you have for this?

Apple has clearly stated that the Developer Transition Kit Mini is not a shipping product. It doesn't even use the latest A series chip. It is basically an iPad Pro in a Mac Mini enclosure, with some additional ports.
 
And what evidence do you have for this?

Apple has clearly stated that the Developer Transition Kit Mini is not a shipping product. It doesn't even use the latest A series chip. It is basically an iPad Pro in a Mac Mini enclosure, with some additional ports.

There’s a spec page that says it’s USB C and USB A and the C ports are only up to 10 Gbps https://developer.apple.com/programs/universal/
 
There’s a spec page that says it’s USB C and USB A and the C ports are only up to 10 Gbps https://developer.apple.com/programs/universal/

Correct. Those specs are for a non-shipping system. It is a special machine to allow developers to start, well, developing, for the forthcoming 'ARM' Macs.

Those are not the specs for a Mac that is actually for sale. Apple has stated this, several times, that the SOC in the Developer Transition Kit machine is not the SOC that will be in shipping Mac systems. You know, the kind you can actually buy.

Maybe Thunderbolt will be available for 'ARM' Macs. Maybe it won't. But unless you are working on the Macs which will be sold to consumers, you don't know (and even if you are you may not know). I don't know. Most people who work for Apple don't know.

I fully expect Thunderbolt to be available on the first 'ARM' Mac. But that is an opinion. Likewise I expect most everything I run today to run on an 'ARM' Mac (major exception, Windows 10 under Parallels; which is a bummer but - I'll be running my Intel Mini for years, so it won't be an issue for me). And I expect all my peripherals to work. I expect this because Apple said everything that works today will work tomorrow, with specific exceptions.

But like I said, I expect to be running my 2018 Mini for years to come. And it already has Thunderbolt, so I'm not worried about that.
 
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