Thunderbolt Will Become Key Motherboard Spec in 2H 2012
Thunderbolt will allow these boards to provide two-way bandwidth reaching up to 10 Gbps to Thunderbolt-compatible devices. The tech supports both PCI Express and DisplayPort on a single port, but there's a drawback: Thunderbolt is more expensive than USB 3.0, limiting its future growth for the time being.
Unnamed sources in the motherboard sector are claiming that Thunderbolt is expected to become one of the the key specifications that motherboard makers will be competing with in the second half of 2012. Yet given that Thunderbolt chips are only offered by Intel with quotes of around $20 to $25, this leaves non-Intel chipmakers unable to make a profit from Thunderbolt directly, thus creating adapter chips instead.
The wave of Thunderbolt desktops, motherboards and peripherals in the second half of 2012 has been expected for some time. Even Intel said that it's shooting for around 100 Thunderbolt-based peripherals by the end of the year.
Last month, Kirk Skaugen, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group, said the number of devices is expected to grow as Thunderbolt expands from Apple's Mac OS X universe over to Microsoft's Windows-based realm starting this summer.
"We have 21 Thunderbolt devices in things like storage and displays in the marketplace. We have a hundred targeted by the end of the year, and hundreds of Thunderbolt devices targeted by the middle or end of next year,” Skaugen said.
In March Intel spokesman Dave Salvator said that the company will finally release optical cables for Thunderbolt later this year. Unlike the current copper versions, these should provide more bandwidth and longer cable runs in the "tens of meters" although devices will need their own power supply at greater lengths. Running power over longer optical cable will cause a impedance-induced power drop and thus be impractical, he said.
UPDATE: Intel reminded us that there's also the DZ77RE-75K, the chipmaker's first Z77 chipset motherboard with Thunderbolt and optimized for the 2nd and 3rd generation Intel Core –K processors in the LGA1155 package. The DZ77RE-75K board features the Intel Visual BIOS, which enables performance tuning and overclocking of the CPU core, graphics and memory speeds with unlocked Core –K processors.
Here we are in a similar situation. Apple is getting the jump on it and they don't care about a $25 chip considering their markup margins. It also makes more sense on their platform; it gives them more flexibility for aesthetic design aspects.
However FireWire made immediate sense for Video transfer on PC and Mac at its introduction. Here's Thunderbolt. I've heard everything about how great it is and what it would be nice for. Now just what is Intel stressing that we need this for? Not a few years from now... I mean right now.
Oh my, what higher education can accomplish these days...the obvious.
Here we are in a similar situation. Apple is getting the jump on it and they don't care about a $25 chip considering their markup margins. It also makes more sense on their platform; it gives them more flexibility for aesthetic design aspects.
However FireWire made immediate sense for Video transfer on PC and Mac at its introduction. Here's Thunderbolt. I've heard everything about how great it is and what it would be nice for. Now just what is Intel stressing that we need this for? Not a few years from now... I mean right now.
If it can't do that, then there won't be many Thunderbolt devices, and it will pretty much be one of those things like SPDIF and 1394 that are on every motherboard, but nobody ever uses them.
I want TB devices that power media devices 1 plug for data and power until then I stick with what works
Where TB will be able to shine is in its ability to replace the typical docking station for a laptop. Rather than either (a) a proprietary connector to a large desktop cartridge-like device, or (b) a lot of individual connections for Kbd / Mouse / Video / Network / (storage?) / power, the TB spec can facilitate the use of just one or two connectors for everything (the second being for power - too bad they didn't put a PoTB into the spec!). It might eventually plug straight into your monitor, which would actually be a desktop expansion device including USB 2.0 ports for Kbd / Mouse, a GbE network port, an external GPU (on the more expensive version...), and either an internal HDD or a USB 3.0 connection for an external drive.
Personally, I've never been a big fan of docking stations. If there were something simple, small, light, PnP, hot-connectable, and cost-effective that I could use instead, I'd be much happier with the concept.
I do wish they'd thought about power, though. They didn't think through what I consider to be the most likely application of this technology.
its up to the companies to keep the products with this interface cheap like their USB products to make it viable. one example is only the value brand external HDD have USB interfaces while the pricier ones have either fire wire, eSATA or both.
i have had 2 PC's so far that had firewire ports but never have had any products that used those ports
You're likely right, but at least it's a step in the right direction. If it was fully optical, that would potentially reduce latency, right? The x4 limitation isn't huge for gaming. PCI 2.0 at x4 speed only limits the 78xx cards by at most 20%. The 680 and 670 suffer a bit more though.
When you consider the prices of high end mobile GPUs though, even loosing a full 20% isn't horrible. The 580m costs around $700 and performs like a 6870. That's ridiculous.
Look at the size of your power cord powering your monitor. Look at the size of a USB cable. Any thoughts come to mind?