docking station hp g5 with Mcbookair M2 - 15"

A quick google learns me that it is compatible with MacBooks, but that you can only use the limited number of external displays with your MacBook. For the macbook air, that will be 1 external display

Most docks consume the video signal that the computer provides, so they don't increase the number of displays that you can connect.

There are docks with DisplayLink that can drive extra monitors. These docks do not give you an extra hardware video output – you install a driver on your computer, it creates a virtual software screen, and sends compressed snapshots to the DisplayLink-equipped device. That device decodes the compressed signal and uses it to offer DisplayPort or HDMI output. I believe Synaptics offers Mac/PC drivers for free but makes their money off of the sales of the required decoder chips and software to DisplayLink hub vendors.

This would not be the way to connect extra monitors for high-end 3D gaming, but for productivity use, you may find it adequate.

https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics

The Synaptics site has a list of third-party docking stations that support their technology. You could look at those to see if any are Mac-compatible and have other desired features.

https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics/displaylink-products-list?field_displaylink_category_value=universal_docking_stations

Note that DisplayLink is not the same thing as DisplayPort.

There may also be products from other vendors that do not use DisplayLink but that are based on a similar idea. E.g., Luna Display (Astropad) for using an iMac as a monitor for another computer.

If you get a display link compatible dock you can connect multiple external displays.

https://www.macworld.com/article/675869/how-to-connect-two-or-more-external-displays-to-apple-silicon-m1-macs.html

The M chips are well up to this task and the functionality is limited by the OS. Do submit feedback to apple that this is a feature you would like to see supported. Without the need for specific docks and 3rd party software.

RE: "The M chips are well up to this task and the functionality is limited by the OS. "

You assert that "the functionality is limited by the OS" without providing any proof that it is. The limit of two displays total (including any built-in one) on systems using 'base' M1 and M2 SoCs could be due to limitations in the designs of those SoCs, rather than limitations in software. Especially since in creating the first M-series SoC, Apple scaled UP from iPhone/iPad chips, not DOWN from high-end M-series ones (which did not exist).

Yes, if people want support for more external displays by entry-level Mac, they can provide feedback to Apple, but it may be that this is something that would require architectural changes to the M1 and M2 designs. A new SoC (like a M3 or M4 or the existing Pro/Max SoCs), not an OS patch for existing ones.

‘this is something that would require architectural changes to the M1 and M2 designs’

Please can you source this. Given there is an active software workaround my assertion that it’s software not hardware seems more credible than your assertion about the chip.

RE: "Given there is an active software workaround my assertion that it’s software not hardware seems more credible than your assertion about the chip."

The "active software workaround" doesn't provide another first-class hardware video output, as you, yourself, acknowledged in another thread. You seem unaware that handling of high-speed data frequently involves an element of hardware acceleration, to offload the burden from the CPU. You also seem unaware that hardware acceleration is less flexible – in every respect EXCEPT the critical one of performance – than processing every piece of data through the CPU. It may have limits – intentional or otherwise – that cannot be changed using a software patch, after the fact.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of hardware acceleration path between the M1/M2's GPUs, and their Thunderbolt/USB-C/HDMI controllers. Why would you want to hit the CPU up with video traffic all of the time, if the CPU could tell the other components to take care of video traffic for it?

The downside of this is that the hardware acceleration path might have limits – intentional, or otherwise. If it is highly desirable, or necessary, to rely on that path for performance reasons, then just because you could install software patches to the OS, doesn't mean that you could install ones that lift the limitation.