I have to admit I still don't really know what thunderbolt even is. I think it's something that is done over USB-C, and requires hardware support on the CPU.

I'm guessing it's one search query + a one minute read away though. I just haven't.

It’s a PCIe tunnelling protocol, sort of. The other simpler one is Oculink.

Most of the time you could do the same thing with USB <4 without slowdown.

Good to know! Thanks.

Does Oculink have any special sauce to it? I was under the impression it presented itself as regular old PCI-e and it is really "just" a cabling solution.

I’m not entirely sure. It definitely don’t have its own protocol like Thunderbolt and can’t possibly be secured.