Potential Uses for the Second Thunderbolt™ Port on NI PXIe Thunderbolt™ Products

Issue Details

• My PXIe-8301 has two Thunderbolt 3 ports. Can I use both ports to maximize system throughput?
• I have an external USB-C disk that I would like to connect to my PXIe-1090. Can I use its secondary port for this purpose?
• What is the purpose of the other TBT3 port on my PXIe-1083?

Solution

The second Thunderbolt™ 3 port on the PXIe-8301, PXIe-1083, and PXIe-1090 is meant for connecting peripheral devices only (e.g. monitors, external drives, headsets, USB sticks). It is not intended to daisy-chain multiple PXIe chassis together using Thunderbolt.

Additional Information

You can add another Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C device to the system, like a monitor or storage, as shown below:

Note – Either port can be used to connect the PXIe-8301, PXIe-1083, or PXIe-1090 to the host PC.

NI does not support using the secondary Thunderbolt port on the PXIe-8301, PXIe-1083, or PXIe-1090 to connect another PXIe Chassis, as this may cause the system to require more PCIe Buses than the maximum allowed by the Thunderbolt Specification, resulting in unexpected behavior.