After a battery of tests with their current lineup of USB-C and Thunderbolt products, Plugable learned that Apple’s newest MacBook Pros may not be compatible with currently available Thunderbolt 3 devices. This issue seems to specifically stem from the use of Texas Instruments controller chips in the Thunderbolt 3 devices. If true, this means that has Apple potentially shut out early adopters of the new technology.
Plugable had began running tests of their USB-C and Thunderbolt products and realized that their Thunderbolt 3 peripherals were no longer compatible with Apple’s latest MacBook Pro. It appears that using the currently available Texas Instruments controller chips in Thunderbolt 3 devices are incompatible with the newest MacBook Pro. In light of the news, Plugable has postponed their Thunderbolt 3 docking station as they evaluate the next steps.
Just today we shared OWC’s announcement of a new Thunderbolt 3 dock, but because of the February 2017 ship date it could be possible that they have opted to use another controller chip or just won’t be affected.
Because of this, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone our TBT3-UD1 Docking Station as we evaluate what is necessary to make this docking station MacBook-compatible. Our Flagship TBT3-UDV dock with Power Delivery/Charging is using the next generation controller chip from TI, and will be compatible with the 2016 Thunderbolt 3 MacBooks.
We’ll continue to post updates with new Thunderbolt™ 3 product and release information as it becomes available.
– Plugable
Update 11/03/2016 7:28 PDT: Plugable has updated their site with some more information regarding the situation:
We’ve reached out to Apple for further comment and will update when we hear something.
We’ve also made the difficult decision to postpone our TBT3-UD1 Docking Station to update to the TPS65983 chipset and re-certify to make this docking station MacBook-compatible. Our Flagship TBT3-UDV dock with Power Delivery/Charging was already planned to use the next generation controller chip from TI, and will be compatible with the 2016 Thunderbolt 3 MacBooks.
