A Thunderbolt™ docking station is a device that connects to a computer via a Thunderbolt™ cable and provides multiple ports for connecting peripheral devices, such as external hard drives, displays, keyboard, mouse, and others. It allows the user to connect multiple devices to a single port, reducing cable clutter and making it easier to connect and disconnect all the devices with just one cable. Thunderbolt™ docking stations typically offer high-speed data transfer and support for dual 4K displays and can also provide charging for laptops and other devices.

Thunderbolt™ is a high-speed interface technology for connecting peripheral devices to a computer. It offers fast data transfer speeds (up to 40 Gbps), support for dual 4K displays, and the ability to daisy-chain multiple devices. It supports both data and video transfer and uses a compact, reversible USB-C type connector.

Yes, you can connect USB devices to a Thunderbolt™ port. Thunderbolt™ technology supports the USB protocol, and most Thunderbolt™ ports include a USB controller, allowing you to connect USB devices directly to the port. This means that you can connect USB devices, such as external hard drives, printers, and others, to a Thunderbolt™ port and use them as if they were connected to a USB port on your computer. Additionally, some Thunderbolt™ docking stations have additional USB ports that you can use to connect additional USB devices.

No. Thunderbolt™ is a protocol from Intel whereas USB-C is a connector type maintained by the USB-IF. While Thunderbolt™ 3 and Thunderbolt™ 4 leverage the physical USB-C connector, Intel’s Thunderbolt™ technology maintains minimum requirements with OEMs using their technology (to ensure a consistent experience between devices and brands). USB-C can be implemented in many ways (data only, data and power, data and video, or data, video and power). As of late 2021, Thunderbolt™ (3 or 4) can support Dual 4K video @ 60Hz, up to 100W Power Delivery, 40Gbps data transfer speeds, daisy chaining and more. While USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 can support data, video and power; output varies by device.

This depends on your requirements. One of the benefits of Thunderbolt™ though is that you can daisy chain multiple devices off a single port. As an example, instead of needing five ports on a docking station, you could connect one Thunderbolt™ SSD to the docking station and then daisy chain the other SSDs off the first one: pending your SSDs support daisy chaining. In addition to this, while Thunderbolt™ 3 docking stations supported one upstream port (host laptop port) and one downstream port (port to connect a monitor, SSD, eGPU, etc.), Thunderbolt™ 4 now offers one upstream port and three downstream ports natively providing you even more Thunderbolt™ ports to leverage.