What's new

One cable to rule them all: Light Peak (1 Viewer)

Sam Posten

Moderator
Premium
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 30, 1997
Messages
33,671
Location
Aberdeen, MD & Navesink, NJ
Real Name
Sam Posten
I also question that you have to buy a new machine to get it. It wont be available for an option card that I can put in my Mac Pro? Are you kidding me?
 

mattCR

Reviewer
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
10,897
Location
Lee Summit, Missouri
Real Name
Matt
Originally Posted by Sam Posten
I also question that you have to buy a new machine to get it. It wont be available for an option card that I can put in my Mac Pro? Are you kidding me?

It could be possible, you'd need a x8 PCI-E card to make up for the bridge controller and the lanes. But for most computers, that would be an X16 slot, which they are using for graphics. So, it's hard to get that to work out. Since a lot of the boards that have shipped, especially those that are H55, etc. aren't even PCI-E 8X in their 16X slots (for example, H55 boards are 4 lanes in the PCI-E X16 length slot) it would be no use at all.

It's a catch 22 for them.
 

Sam Posten

Moderator
Premium
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 30, 1997
Messages
33,671
Location
Aberdeen, MD & Navesink, NJ
Real Name
Sam Posten
Full of wrong info and half truths mixed in with opinion.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2385615,00.asp

Don't start a land war in asia and don't bet against Apple on stuff like this....
 

Sam Posten

Moderator
Premium
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 30, 1997
Messages
33,671
Location
Aberdeen, MD & Navesink, NJ
Real Name
Sam Posten
Or maybe Apple IS clueless here.... (and greedy)
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/06/28/apple_releases_49_thunderbolt_cable_offers_external_raid_systems.html
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/24/airplay-and-thunderbolt-may-be-limited-to-high-end-devices-to-start/
 

mattCR

Reviewer
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
10,897
Location
Lee Summit, Missouri
Real Name
Matt
From your article:


iLounge now reports that slow roll-out of Thunderbolt and the lack of consumer-based options may be due to high pricing for incorporating the technology, an issue that appears to also be affecting third-party peripherals compatible with Apple's AirPlay streaming technology. According to the report, the inclusion of Thunderbolt or AirPlay compatibility can add as much as $100 to the price of these devices, limiting their ability to address mainstream consumer markets.

You have GOT to be kidding me. $100 to add 2 features that only a small set of units anywhere in the world can use? How do you not learn from firewire?!?# I will openly admit Thunderbolt is a standard with a lot of great potential.. but Firewire1 was so much better then USB1.1 it was stupid (400Mb vs. 10Mb) So why did USB1.1 succeed? COST.

I hate to break this to Apple, but this isn't like an Ipod or an iPhone or something where people can look at it and admire the craftmanship. Here, you're moving data for the most part at first. For users, USB3 will seem as though it moves data "fast enough" along with eSATA which is basically free to anyone who already licenses SATA (which is everyone) at a near nothing cost... more then that, they are universally backwards compatible.
So you're going to introduce a new standard, and no matter how great it is, if the best you've got is 4 devices that have a starting cost of $1,000 and the they are data devices (4TB is $1K? Are you SERIOUS?)

What is the market for this? The devices aren't big enough and they are single target (ie, it's not like they have multiple Thunderbolt connectors for multiple macs to access them) so they fail in comparison to say, Fiber connected SAN devices, while Faster then an eSATA device, the cost will be a killer for most...

Ugh. They need some cheap, straight forward "MUST HAVE" Thunderbolt items that you can't get elsewhere. Super-spendy attached storage isn't it. Get a tumble scanner or a prepress to adopt Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt is a better standard then USB3. There is no doubt about it. But being a "better" standard of anything doesn't always matter if consumers don't have a reason to chose it.
 

mattCR

Reviewer
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
10,897
Location
Lee Summit, Missouri
Real Name
Matt
Sam, here's the link:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/06/why-apples-2m-thunderbolt-cable-costs-a-whopping-50.ars

Sony is also coming out with Thunderbolt this summer; except it's rendition will use a proprietary cable they make for an outboard dock and GPU station only; so it will not be compatible with this station.
HP is also rolling out a thunderbolt port, it will also use a different connector type aimed at a dock.


In honesty, I can see this being used as an ultimate docking station solution. In fact, if they just use it as an interconnect that a laptop could slip into for a full dock with video, and all other connectors it would be a great advantage compared to the docks that have risen up since PCs got faster.

But it also means Apple will be alone in their cable type for a while. And at a $50 pop per cable (so per device) that's a big chunk of change, wiping out any low cost device for it. In other words: don't expect to see a sub, say, $400 device that's Thunderbolt. Because with a $100 cost for the chip and connector + fifty for a cable, it'd be a $250 device with that much in add on cost, so it wouldn't be very tempting.

This problem though isn't Apple's, it's Intels. Intel could have pushed Thunderbolt out as optional components on new Intel branded motherboards, or options for new Sandy Bridge options that would have put it in the OEM market.. broader adoption would have meant lower prices and more devices. They didn't. And now the cheese stands alone with the super cool toy. And that's Intel's fault.
 

Sam Posten

Moderator
Premium
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 30, 1997
Messages
33,671
Location
Aberdeen, MD & Navesink, NJ
Real Name
Sam Posten
Little Big Disk now available:
http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/20/lacie-thunderbolt-little-big-drives-ready-for-order/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29
So that's a $300 premium over a similar USB 2.0 disk. Or 4x the price. LaCie are expensive to begin with but man, that's ridiculous.
 

Sam Posten

Moderator
Premium
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 30, 1997
Messages
33,671
Location
Aberdeen, MD & Navesink, NJ
Real Name
Sam Posten
Current ports compatible with future optical cables!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/240618/apple_mac_thunderbolt_ports_will_support_optical_cables.html#tk.rss_news
 

Ted Todorov

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2000
Messages
3,706
Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Posten /t/293386/one-cable-to-rule-them-all-light-peak/30#post_3854583
Current ports compatible with future optical cables!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/240618/apple_mac_thunderbolt_ports_will_support_optical_cables.html#tk.rss_news
That's great news, but unless I'm missing something it won't help any with this generation Thunderbolt Apple Cinema Displays… I don't see how you'd hook up an optical cable to them if you need say a 50' run.

I am currently in that situation with Display Port, the longest extension I have been able to find (works fine) was ~25' and I need at least 35'...
 

Sam Posten

Moderator
Premium
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 30, 1997
Messages
33,671
Location
Aberdeen, MD & Navesink, NJ
Real Name
Sam Posten
You need a 25' run for a desktop display? What am I missing here? Are you operating on a nuclear submarine with your machine in a rack in the ballast room?
 

Ted Todorov

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2000
Messages
3,706
My MacPro is in the living room, connected to our HDTV. We have a 27" ACD in the bedroom -- thus my need for a 35' cable. Yes, I can hook up a MacBook there and use screen sharing, but a direct connection has its advantages.
 

Ted Todorov

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2000
Messages
3,706
Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Posten /t/293386/one-cable-to-rule-them-all-light-peak/30#post_3855132
Spend the $1600 instead of $999 for the ACD and $200 for what that optical cable is going to cost you and put a 27" iMac up there.
I considered it at the time, I ended up with the $999 ACD -- in any event this doesn't even apply to me -- I have the Display Port equipped ACD. All of my Macs are Display Port as well, so in my situation a Thunderbolt ACD would be useless.
 

Sam Posten

Moderator
Premium
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 30, 1997
Messages
33,671
Location
Aberdeen, MD & Navesink, NJ
Real Name
Sam Posten
Gotcha. The optical cables seem to be aimed at the mass storage uses more than the display. I would think that less than 1 percent of one percent of people would have this concern...
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,712
Messages
5,121,150
Members
144,147
Latest member
cennetkaralowa
Recent bookmarks
0
Top