It’s tough being an early adopter, such as those of us who jumped on board the Thunderbolt train earlier this year with a new Mac, only to discover there was so very little to plug into that I/O port. Among the many promises of Thunderbolt is a docking station, and Belkin appears poised to please on that front.

MacRumors is reporting that accessory maker Belkin is showing off a new Thunderbolt Express Dock at this week’s Intel Developer Forum, which promises to provide a single-port docking station for peripherals similar to the one included with Apple’s $999 27-inch Thunderbolt Display -- but presumably without that high price tag.

“The Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock features three USB ports, a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining, a FireWire port, and a GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) port,” explains a hands-on report from DailyTech. “This is basically the same port setup that’s found on the new 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display. For Apple users looking for expanded port offerings via the Thunderbolt port and don’t want to pay $999 for the functionality, the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock will come in handy.”

Presumably, the Thunderbolt Express Dock is aimed squarely at notebook users who are required to unplug multiple peripherals each time they want to go portable. Belkin’s solution would provide them with the ability to unplug a single cable and undock from multiple connections at once.

Sadly, there’s no word on pricing let alone when the Thunderbolt Express Dock will be available, so for now the accessory remains like so many Thunderbolt peripherals before it -- the technological equivalent of Bigfoot, occasionally seen but never actually captured.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

(Image courtesy of MacRumors and DailyTech)