Noiseworks PR - notable for its silence
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Intel, Apple launch 10Gbps 'Thunderbolt' data transfer technology
THUNDERBOLT, formerly known as Lightpeak, is the data transfer technology that Intel unveiled today and Apple immediately adopted to bedazzle its fanbois.
According to Intel, Thunderbolt technology is a high-speed PC connection technology that runs at 10Gbps on a single cable and "supports both data and display". Intel developed it with the help of Apple.
But aren't data and display the same thing, as display is just data of a sort? Anyway this technology is appearing on Apple's Macbook Pro laptops that were also announced today. Those announcements mentioned Thunderbolt, somewhat undermining Intel's event that Chipzilla held in San Francisco this evening, UK time, to launch its next generation computer data tansfer technology.
Intel said that the technology, formerly known as Lightpeak, is capable of "transfer[ing] a full-length [High Definition] movie in less than 30 seconds," but The INQUIRER thinks Big Content won't be too keen on that.
Intel's explanation of how Thunderbolt works is that it combines "high-speed" data and HD video connections in a single cable and uses the PCI Express protocol for data transfer. Okay, that we understand, and Displayport for displays.
Apparently Displayport can drive "greater than 1080p" resolution displays and up to eight channels of audio simultaneously.
Intel wasn't available for questons because the phone bridge it organised with its San Francisco Thunderbolt launch event was a disaster.
Working from the press release, The INQUIRER can report that Intel's Thunderbolt technology is compatible with existing Displayport displays and adapters. And all Thunderbolt technology devices share a common connector. Users will be able to "daisy-chain" multiple devices one after another, using electrical or optical cables.
Aja, Apogee, Avid, Blackmagic, LaCie, Promise, and Western Digital are all named as companies that Intel expects to launch or support products using Thunderbolt. These products will include computers, displays, storage devices, audio video devices, cameras and docking stations. µ
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"It says 10gbps not 10GB/s. There is a difference you know.
posted by : Keystone"
You can't read either.
b = Bit
B = Byte
g = Gravity constant
G = Giga (x10^9)
You can work it out...
just because apple is the first to use this port you dismiss it why? May i remind you the apple were one the first companies to ethernet and they were the frist to usb when it was only being developed by intel. Which means you argument has no basis and does not stand up. I bored with haters just go and do something usefull.
Like some have already pointed out, Thunderbolt seems to be a "PCI Express bus extender". You could use it e.g. like a docking station with a additional box providing support for more storage, specialized interfaces etc. i.e. You could replace mac pro with a resource extension box next to your laptop.
Apple Religion... FireWire, BlueTooth etc used to have one tech word... it has none.. seriously what amount of tech is this word!?!
Apple iReligion: verse-os.x
===========================
Let there be thunder and there was thunder ... let there be bolt and there was a bolt and the god bolted it with thunder and behold there was thunder-bolt!!!
The "need" for having a GPU in each Thunderbolt (as Intel PDF seems to suggest) could perhaps not be mandatory, unless average computers were intended for more than two external monitors.
If a computer provides a non-GPU Thunderbolt connector, it will confuse the users (not all ports equivalent). Alternatively, if only one connector is planned, users trying to disconnect a single pheriferal would be forced to temporarily disconnect and reconnect others (except for the last connected one, at the end of the chain).
Thunderbolt is in fact also a "e-PCIe connector". This is interesting, because breaks high speed limits with external peripherals. But as any connector, it should have been designed by the whole industry, in a open royalty-free scheme. Intel seems to try a partial success (thanks to Apple fanboys) and, once the peripherals appear, the whole PC industry may follow and increase *their* income for centuries.
It says 10gbps not 10GB/s. There is a difference you know.
don't seem to have figured out what Thunderbolt it for. It's NOT a replacement for USB3, Ethernet etc. It's a way of moving IO ports off of the system board onto external devices.
Down a single connection is sends an interleaved datastream. Half of it is for the display. The other half moves a PCIe slot to your external box. You can use that remote slot to provide USB3, RAID, eSATA, gigabit ethernet etc using normal PCIe drivers. You can have up to 6 of these devices in a chain.
What would you use that lot for? It allows you to provide a highly competent base station & storage for a laptop that uses only one small port. Connect your power and monitor cables and you get access to whatever other (high speed) devices your base station is connected to. Sounds like something that laptop users might want to me. If it's not expensive to implement (and it looks like its isn't) then it's likely to be a popular option for all laptop buyers.
Oh, neat! Light Peak!
...except light turns out to not be involved (Party like it's 1999, guys)...
...and it's married to DisplayPort in a strange way (Can you even have a "pure" Thunderbolt port WITHOUT having a GPU behind it?)...
...and it's $$$ to license...
Sorry Intel, you fail. I thought you were going to do better than this. Besides, what possible use is a 10GB/s connector ON A LAPTOP? Even if the thing has a really fast SSD, you aren't even going to hit more than 3-4% utilization. Yet another Apple port that no one else cares about or can use.
But there is still no point or reason to it. All it appears to do is to try and replace one cable type with another without any added functionality.
As long as Thunderbolt lacks support from RME, it's worthless.
And 2 USB (2.0!) ports, even on the 15" MBP, are some sort of a very bad joke...
The new 10gbps tech that intel is working on (which is old news btw- Tomshardware beat you by 1:00 AM - January 17, 2011 ) is supposed to be backwards compatible to allow existing CAT-6e cable to function with it.
Seriously,learn more about the subject before you start spouting retarded comments.
I'm struggling to see what this connector is designed to do. Ethernet via RJ45 is too entrenched to be replaced, hard drives crap out at around 1 Gb/s and are covered by esata and USB3 (although future high capacity SSDs might change that). So that would leave displays, we already have DVI, Displayport, HDMI and VGA hanging on. So this is basically a propriety Displayport connector with lower bandwidths. I literally don't get it.
Unless of course Intel and Apple are trying to replace USB and thus think you *need* a 10Gb/s connection to your keyboard......