If you need to move a lot of data, and fast, Gigabit Ethernet is a great way to do it ... To this end, it eschews the common RJ45 connector, which is bulkier than necessary.

Adds Six High-Speed Ports and Gigabit Ethernet to Your Laptop The USB ports ... front of the dock can transfer up to 10 Gbps, while the RJ45 LAN port has a transfer speed of up to 1 Gbps.

After a bit of head-scratching he thought about repurposing the four unused wires on one of the RJ45 Ethernet connectors. This would allow him to interface with the necessary signals and still ...