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Thunderbolt to USB 3 Cable?

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macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 20, 2010
429
23
I've searched on the Internet for a TB to USB3 cable, but I can't find any. That leads me to ask the following:

Why aren't there any such cables? Are such cables even technically possible? :eek:
 
Not possible, at least without a rather large adapter. USB isn't based on PCIe technology like thunderbolt is. There are microchips in the ends of thunderbolt cables where USB is a passive cable (part of the price difference reason).
 
COrocket said:
Not possible, at least without a rather large adapter. USB isn't based on PCIe technology like thunderbolt is. There are microchips in the ends of thunderbolt cables where USB is a passive cable (part of the price difference reason).
Click to expand...


how does tb to ethernet cables work then?
 

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"Why aren't there any such cables? Are such cables even technically possible?"

There aren't going to be any thunderbolt-to-usb3 adapters.

They might be "technically possible" to engineer and build.

But the end product would probably be quite expensive due to the development costs vis-a-vis the market.

And that's the final problem. There would be almost no market for such a product, beyond a relatively few customers who would want such a connection option.

Any company that attempted to market one of these devices would loose their shirt on it.

And that's the real reason you'll never see one...
 
Great! Can't believe it's been a few years since I posted about this. Anyways, although it's good to know that there exist a TB -> USB3 connector, I've moved on from getting one.
 
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