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Thunderbolt

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61–70 of 211 posts

Re: Thunderbolt

#61
post #23
post #15

Wonder how many monitors this can push. Also, what will happen to Apples 30pin connector on their iPods,iPhones... I guess we will know Tuesday. Are there any external hard drives with thunderbolt yet?

The bandwidth is apparently entirely unimpressive. DisplayPort is currently at 17.28 Gbps, so Thunderbolt can push ... 0.6 monitors? ;) (In the worst case, at least) I have been excited about Light Peak/Thunderbolt for a year or so now, but in that time it seems the ambitions have become smaller, and the competition has developed as well.

It has two independent 10Gbps channels, so it can do 20Gbps.

Re: Thunderbolt

#62
Can anybody shed light on the possibility of DRM or some implementation of Tilt-bits to restrict output from this port to high resolution screens etc?

Re: Thunderbolt

#63
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bandwidth is apparently entirely unimpressive. DisplayPort is currently at 17.28 Gbps, so Thunderbolt can push ... 0.6 monitors? ;) (In the worst case, at least) I have been excited about Light Peak/Thunderbolt for a year or so now, but in that time it seems the ambitions have become smaller, and the competition has developed as well.

It has two independent 10Gbps channels, so it can do 20Gbps.

That's not really relevant as long as you can't choose the directions for the channels. You are only going to get one channel in each direction.

Edit: Whoa. I just re-read parts of the Intel documentation, and it seems there are indeed two independent downstream channels. My bad. It also looks like there is no provision for using both channels for a single device? I have no idea.

Re: Thunderbolt

#64
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firewire was 400MBits for 5 years before USB2 was released (USB1 was only 12MBits). Look who won that one.

I don't care who won, I like my FireWire CF card reader.

Right up until you have nothing to plug it into.

Re: Thunderbolt

#66
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if Apple will eventually replace the dock connector on the iPhone/iPad with Thunderbolt? That would be a compelling reason to upgrade: your music sync time would be freed of another bottleneck. Of course, it kind of messes with the third-party accessory market, but I'm sure they'd love another reason to get people to buy new stuff.

Also remember that the doc connector is a revenue source. I'm having trouble finding a source right now, but if I am remembering right Apple sells the actual dock connectors to accessory makers.

Yep, Apple charges royalty on the 30 pin conector, which varies in cost depending on what it's used for. You have to be enrolled in Apple's MiFi program too. Apple makes money everywhere.

Re: Thunderbolt

#67
post #9

Technically it seems nice, but what's up with reusing the "high voltage" symbol for this? And "thunderbolt" is a very tacky name...

IMO, nearly all of the icons on the side of the laptop don't make sense. The headphones are clearly recognizable, and the rest are just pretty shapes. I'd argue that the headphone jack is the only place you actually need the icon, since it shares the same shape as the goatse-plug next to it (whatever that's supposed to be).

Re: Thunderbolt

#68
Having just bought my third DVI adapter for my MBP, I am underwhelmed that Apple is building an external i/o bus around this connector. They wear out very quickly.

Re: Thunderbolt

#69
Having just bought my third DVI adapter for my MBP, I am underwhelmed that Apple is building an external i/o bus around this connector. They wear out very quickly.

Re: Thunderbolt

#70
post #28
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB2 and FireWire were close to the same speed. Thunderbolt is twice as fast as USB3 and can push DisplayPorts, so I doubt it will be the same.

Yes, but 1) USB3 has a 1 year lead - check out how many products are out already 2) 5Gbps vs 10Gbps. There are just a couple of SSDs that need SATA III (6Gbps) because the 3Gbps isn't enough. You just don't need the speed for disk I/O. What for then? Current DisplayPorts 1.2 has 17Gbps so I don't really see the Thunderbolt replacing it. also Firewire 800 was substantially faster in theoretical and particularly in pra…

1) true 2) true, but keep in mind that this bandwidth is shared by the entire bus.
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