USB3 vs. Thunderbolt/LightPeak

[mike123abc]

I see Apple having USB 3.0 as soon as Intel releasing it. I can see Apple not wanting to have to support a third party USB 3.0 chipset.

 

[diogen]

It looks like we're going to know soon how justified the $50 Thunderbolt cable prices are...
Intel: Thunderbolt coming to PCs, prototype shown at IDF 2011 -- Engadget

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

The only question remaining is what will be the connector on the PC-version of Thunderbolt?
The ones showcased at IDF had the same as Apple's latest Macs.

Since USB3 is heading to Intel chipsets, we might see a USB-compatible implementation

We can dream, right...

Diogen.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Thunderbolt might be good but hard to tell since there is still no hardware for it!

I have a number of USB 3.0 drives but have yet to see a Thunderbolt drive....

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I would suspect the same adapter. Just like Firewire adapters were the same on both.

 

[diogen]

I have a number of USB 3.0 drives but have yet to see a Thunderbolt drive....

I don't think any of the regular external hard drives can saturate a USB3 bus.
Hence, going with an even faster pipe won't make any difference...today.

But it can be very useful in scenarios where you connect something like a smartphone
to an external set of Storage/Video/Network using one cable...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

The TB standard is set, no USB compatibility
(miniDP and controller on both ends, 10', 10W and 10Gbps max)

Diogen.

 

[Foxbat]

Two news items I saw should help some. MacRumors is reporting that Belkin showed a Thunderbolt breakout that provides USB, Firewire, and Gigabit Ethernet in a wedge that looks like it fits in the monitor foot angle of an Apple display. The USB ports aren't blue, though, so they are most likely USB 2.0 (meh). DailyTech has a post (here) about the Power Media Dock that Sony showed which includes one USB 3.0 port in addition to other features like Blu-Ray, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, etc.

The other is something I expected as soon as I heard that Thunderbolt is PCIe and DisplayPort all-in-one. Magma is showing a 3-slot PCIe expansion cage for Thunderbolt-equipped systems so your notebook could go anywhere you do; come home, plug it in to your Magma box and you're connected to your FC SAN, RAID, high-end graphics, etc. Or, take a Mac Mini and voilà, it's now a Mac Pro!

 

[diogen]

This vitrine has essentially everything TB peripherals can offer today...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

Anand reviews Apple's TB display.

Last paragraph

There are still significant concerns over the adoption of Thunderbolt in the future. While it may be free of royalties, there's only one company that makes Thunderbolt controllers: Intel. Not to mention the licensing fees for using the Thunderbolt logo. What made USB and PCIe successful was the ability for many companies to produce and integrate the necessary controllers. I believe we'll need to see the same from Thunderbolt for it to truly become ubiquitous.

Hard to argue against this.

Diogen.

 

[Foxbat]

I was more troubled with the audio corruption that Anand found when doing his File Transfer tests (almost one gigabyte per second!) using the Promise RAID enclosure. Hopefully this isn't going to be a "feature" of Thunderbolt devices.

If every Thunderbolt device needs to be tested against ever other manufacturer's device, that could have a very chilling effect. Intel needs to help Apple and Promise get to the root cause of this issue.

 

[diogen]

I think those are growing pains...
In a perfect world, Intel will remain the sole controller manufacturer until those kinks are worked out.
And after that it hopefully becomes the next USB business in terms of costs...

If every Thunderbolt device needs to be tested against ever other manufacturer's device, that could have a very chilling effect.

The fact that TB is a FireWire-like daisy-chain technology might complicate testing and device compatibility...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

This sounds really interesting...
Current Thunderbolt ports will support optical cabling next year

What makes it possible to use the same connector for both electrical and optical versions of Thunderbolt is a design that puts the controller in Thunderbolt devices and the transceiver in the cables. Current Thunderbolt cables use a Gennum transceiver at each end and copper cable in between. Replace the Gennum transceiver with an electrical-to-optical transceiver, copper wires with fiber, and bam!—optical Thunderbolt.

Diogen.

 

[Foxbat]

Current Thunderbolt cables use a Gennum transceiver at each end and copper cable in between

...which is why Apple charges $50 for a 2m Thunderbolt cable. And here people thought they were charging that much just because they're Apple...

 

[diogen]

The fact that these cables have chips in each plug
-was mentioned over a month ago in the 7th post in this thread;
-does not justify the $50 price tag.

Could those Gennum transceivers be the justification? Of course.
But I'll believe it when I see a few more manufacturers (Monster Cable excluded) charge similar prices...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

It looks like Intel is still in the planning phase on what Thunderbolt on PC will look like
Intel seen planning Thunderbolt dock standard for ultrabooks | Electronista

New universal docking standard?
Sounds good, as long as it has USB3. What it might not...

Diogen.

 

[harshness]

Having all these exciting new technologies is a complete waste if nobody makes peripherals that can effectively use them.

I'm personally not all that happy about trying to make notebooks and tablets into proper desktop machines.

 

[diogen]

I believe it's all in the name of connectivity.

I believe the cloud idea will have a slower takeoff than expected.
Outside music/mail/contacts, that is.

Hence, you will want (need?) some sort of cloud inside your house.
Connecting your TVs, projectors, NASs, game consoles, PCs, players, etc.
And having just one cable that does it all would be an advantage...

Diogen.

 

[John Kotches]

And the first WiGig products are being announced @ CES.

1 Gbit/sec @ 2.4 and 5 GHz, up to 7 Gbit/second in the 60 GHz band. The 60 Ghz band is basically within a room. Being able to get WiFi @ Gbit will be great for the rooms in my house that the Cat5e isn't syncing @ Gig speeds.

 

[diogen]

This is good news...
Intel not planning to run around and desert USB as Ivy Bridge gets 3.0 certification -- Engadget

Diogen.