I would like to design a SFP+ port for thunderbolt to enable cisco adapters to talk to apple, windows and linux computers. I am in contact with a chinese manufacturer. I will see them on monday. I can code the software. I just don’t know anything about the hardware. Should I just have them make the hardware and create drivers for it? How would you design such a thing I don’t know where to start.
As in: Convert Thunderbolt to SFP+ so it can be sent via DAC or Fiber?
Make sure you clairify who is doing the fcc certification and ce testing
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What in the bloody hell are you doing because I want in
top tip. don’t go for Cisco SFP adapters for this, go for the clones that are 10% of the cost and do exactly the same thing 
this sounds like an interesting idea, are you planning to do it as a dongle or as a seperate box?
Why on earth would it need to be a box? You need to be able to supply 1.5W max to the SFP+ module - it could totally be a dongle.
What software or drivers are you talking about specifically?
I’m imagining you’d probably be reusing drivers from the chipset manufacturer?
I don’t fully understand your proposition:
Do you want to build a device that is connected to a host computer via Thunderbolt 3 and can connect to ethernet via SFP+?
Basically a NIC in an external Thunderbolt enclosure shrunken-down?
or
Do you want to use SFP+ with optical cables to transport Thunderbolt itself over long distances?
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