Thunderbolt adapter on LGA3647 motherboard

[111alan]

Due to the need of thunderbolt to plug in some professional audio devices, we need to find an add on card for our LGA3647 platforms to provide those thunderbolt ports. The problem is, those adapter cards we found all require a thunderbolt header on the motherboard, which C621 and C622 motherboards rarely have.

If we don't plug in that thunderbolt header, will the port provided by the adapter work correctly? Or are there any other solutions to this need? Thanks.

[idata]

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Intel Technical Support.Could you please detail the exact model of these LGA3647, C621, C622 chipset boards? Are those Intel branded boards?What thunderbolt adapters are you planning to implement?For compatibility on Intel branded products you can check the following URL: http://ark.intel.com ark.intel.com under Compatible Products section.We will wait for your updates.Regards.Jose A.

[111alan]

Currently we're running on supermicro X11SPM, but we can get some new motherboards if needed.

All the thunderbolt cards we found, no matter it's produced by asus asrock gigabyte supermicro or dell, they always use the same chip plus that 5pin TBT header.

[idata]

Hello,

Currently Intel do not manufacture any server or workstation board with a build in thunderbolt port or header. In regards to other manufactures its difficult to say but probably researching on their websites will give you some idea about these OEM features. Usually this TBT header you refer is not chipset dependent and the fact that is not present on the boards is more a licensing issues more than compatibility.

About these thunderbolt PCIe boards that you refer, they are supposed to work as long as you find the correct drivers for it but its something we cannot guaranty because Intel doesn't have any thounderbolt PCIe card in production at this time.

For a complete list of current server and workstation products manufactured by Intel you can visit the following URL: https://www.intelserveredge.com/ Intel® Server Product Marketing Library

Hope this helps

Jose A.

[111alan]

Done some research, it seems that that thunderbolt header is a GPIO port. Some 3647 motherboards are reported to support it without this port, but I don't know whether it's all of them.

[idata]

Hello,

Some older generation Intel server boards came with a 5 pin Sata GPIO port with the purpose to connect 3rd party storage devices. To be honest I don't think it will work for this thunderbolt adapter but it has never been tested. In the following document you will find the Technical Product Specification for the S2600WT board manufactured by Intel which cannot be purchased anymore since there is a new generation of boards that unfortunately don't have SGPIO ports any longer.https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/server-products/server-boards/Intel_Server_Board_S2600WT_TPS.pdf https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/server-products/server-boards/Intel_Server_Board_S2600WT_TPS.pdfAbout other 3rd party OEM boards with 3647 socket you want to check with them directly since we don't have design specifications for them.RegardsJose A.

[111alan]

I've looked up these things again. It seems that the card's function will be mostly intact without that GPIO port. But it will need the support of bios otherwise it'll just function as a usb type c adapter. I can unpack the bios and add the efi module in, but the problem is I can't find anything relevant in any of the modules of a lightning supported board's bios.

Is the C620 series platform support TB by default, just didn't give the GPIO port, or something needs to be added?

Thanks.

[idata]

Hello,

According as the information that we have, non of the Intel server boards have TB native support. Besides that customizing a BIOS its something that usually only OEM do for their own hardware. If you want to do it for personal purposes you will need to request access to our engineering department. As per other manufacturers its not possible for us to tell if they have TB support as Intel only provides chipset design specifications but the actual hardware design its proprietary. In the following URL https://www.intel.sg/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/c620-series-chipset-datasheet.pdf https://www.intel.sg/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/c620-series-chipset-datasheet.pdf you will see C620 chipset datasheet and it doesn't specify anything about thunderbolt support.Jose A.

[111alan]

Is there a way for me to request access to the engineering department, or get any bios design guide for LGA3647 platform? Are there any criteria that must be met? I've done some bios editing before, including writing some simple efi drivers, and happy to learn a thing or 2 . But currently there aren't much resources about how purley platform bios or thunderbolt bios support work. Some LGA 3647 platforms are reported to support TB, if there is enough material I can get the bios working myself.

Thank you.

[idata]

Hello,

Unfortunately such information is classified. I think only developers are allowed to have BIOS info for customizing purposes. Besides that non of the Intel manufactured Purley server boards have thunderbolt support so no info should be found in the BIOS file.If you are seeing an OEM board that supports TB you could request them some info and start from there.As for Intel side you probably want to look at the Developer Zone and ask for assistance there: https://software.intel.com/en-us/homeHope this helpsJose A.

[idata]

Hello,

Do you have any updates, questions or comments in regards to this issue?Please do not hesitate to contact us back.If you consider the issue to be completed please let us know so we can proceed to mark this thread as resolved.RegardsJose A.

[idata]

Hello,

We will proceed to mark this thread as resolved. If you have further issues or questions just go ahead and create a new topic.Jose A.