Intel Launches Light Peak Tech as ''Thunderbolt''
It's got the logo fit for a superhero.
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While we may have USB 3.0 and eSATA, but the real high-speed next generation connector could be Intel Light Peak – or should we say, Thunderbolt.
Today Intel officially announced that its Light Peak technology would be branded as Thunderbolt on all platforms (not just Apple making up fancy names). We didn't feel that there was anything wrong with Light Peak; we had grown quite fond of using that name. But for the casual consumer, Thunderbolt likely sounds more like something cool out of a comic book.
Thunderbolt features two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to 10Gbps each, and delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters.
Intel boasts that the speed offered by Thunderbolt is enough to transfer a full-length HD movie in less than 30 seconds or backup 1 year of continuous MP3 playback in just over 10 minutes.
Thunderbolt also supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays, which is its implementation on the Apple MacBook Pros with the shared Thunderbolt/DisplayPort.
Other features include:
* Daisy-chained devices
* Electrical or optical cables
* Low latency with highly accurate time synchronization
* Uses native protocol software drivers
* Power over cable for bus-powered devices
It is not enought for memory, graphic card(need 8x, i think).
I hope it can uniformed the exterenal I/O port (usb, display, eSATA, eithernet...). So we do not need so many type of interface. CopperPeak (well thunderbolt) all the way.
Firewire was great tech when it came out too, but no way I'm paying the extra to get firewire enabled devices. It's USB3.0 or eSATA for me.
So... what's avalible for Thunderbolt?
I don't know about your USB connections, but mine only go in one way. I have, however, plugged USB into an ethernet port quite a few times.
Thunderbolt is the nickname of a United States Air Force jet fighter.
You can force the USB cable in the wrong way and damage the desktop side of the connector making that USB port unfunctional.
The "Amp" is the mobo, CPU and RAM - the HDDs, Optical drive, graphics, sound, network, monitor - all connected by Thunderbolt.
People said this years ago with USB but it never came about due to bandwidth issues but now we have a fat-pipe it may just get there assuming OEMs actually use the standard.
Seems more like a new pci-e port that is located externally instead of internally, since pci-e supports many different devices, the thunderbolt will support have a wide range of support also, (with the help of adapters which can be sold at high markups).
compare that to the USB 2.0 external graphics cards. Not even same league. looks at the business side as well, they sell alot of those usb externals for business related functionality; to have 3 monitors on a laptop etc.