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USB3 vs Thunderbolt


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USB3 vs Thunderbolt
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Eugene
careful with axes
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
 
2012-01-07, 11:54

Quote:
Originally Posted by AWR View Post
Seems to be Cap'n Drew at the helm.

Tangential perhaps (not relevant, forgive), but shouldn't there be a vs. FW800 in the title?
My guess is Firewire will be phased out completely by the end of the year. Macs available in 2013 will instead have additional Thunderbolt ports. If anyone needs Firewire, it will be available via third party docks/adapters or the Apple Thunderbolt Display.
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Dave
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Bay Area, CA
 
2012-01-07, 12:10

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eugene View Post
My guess is Firewire will be phased out completely by the end of the year. Macs available in 2013 will instead have additional Thunderbolt ports. If anyone needs Firewire, it will be available via third party docks/adapters or the Apple Thunderbolt Display.
Eh... Unless a FW -> Thunderbolt adaptor is really cheap, I'd be a bit surprised. I think I see where you're going with it though, and I'm not sure I disagree.

When I was a kid, people who did wrong were punished, restricted, and forbidden. Now, when someone does wrong, all of the rest of us are punished, restricted, and forbidden... and the one who did the wrong is counselled and "understood" and fed ice cream.
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chucker
 
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2012-01-07, 12:47

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave View Post
Eh... Unless a FW -> Thunderbolt adaptor is really cheap, I'd be a bit surprised. I think I see where you're going with it though, and I'm not sure I disagree.
We'll see. So far, the only things close to that are a $149 Thunderbolt to ExpressCard/34 adapter from Sonnet, on top of which you should theoretically be able to use a $15 FireWire ExpressCard. Not really practical nor affordable.

Or, there's the to-launch-in-spring-2012 Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock with (I believe) no known price.

Either has the upside that they could provide other facilities as well — USB 3.0, eSATA, etc. in the former case, and specifically three USB (2.0, presumably) and one Gigabit Ethernet port. But neither is a compelling out-of-the-box solution just yet.

That said, it's early, and prices will come down. I'm no electrical engineer, but if you can make a $15 ExpressCard-to-FireWire adapter, surely you can do one from Thunderbolt for roughly the same price; internally, they're both PCIe.

Eugene is probably right that direct FireWire ports don't have much of a future in Macs.
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Eugene
careful with axes
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
 
2012-01-07, 12:51

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave View Post
Eh... Unless a FW -> Thunderbolt adaptor is really cheap, I'd be a bit surprised. I think I see where you're going with it though, and I'm not sure I disagree.
PCIe FW800 adapters cost as low as $20-25. You might pay a small premium on top of that for a plastic housing and the Thunderbolt controller, so I imagine a high-end FW800 dock with 3-4 ports and LaCie branding would cost ~$50.
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chucker
 
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2012-01-09, 12:18

So Belkin's Dock will launch in fall and be $299.

Would have been pricey at a third.
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Maciej
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2012-01-09, 15:51

Are we in DOA territory yet?
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Dave
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2012-01-09, 16:43

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maciej View Post
Are we in DOA territory yet?
Maybe. It is more than just a Firewire adaptor, but I don't necessarily want everything else it does.
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Eugene
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
 
2012-01-09, 16:48

It seems to have gained a few ports. FW800, GigE, heaphone jack via USB Audio(?), HDMI, Thunderbolt and USB 2.0 in all. $150 would have been a reasonable. I'd love a dock of some sort for my MBA without having to shell out for a glossy Thunderbolt display.
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Mugge
Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
 
2012-01-09, 17:02

Well, if Lenovo decides to go with TB I would expect a lot more TB accessories to follow. And probably at a more reasonable pricepoint.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2012-01-09, 21:37

Do you suppose that a portion of the estimated retail price is based partially on some sort of licensing fees, or simply on a predicted initial limited demand?


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Maciej
M AH - ch ain saw
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2012-01-09, 22:04

I thought I read on Anandtech that there was no licensing cost, as contrast to Firewire. I also vaguely recall reading somewhere that each controller costs somewhere in the range of $90 (but I can't seem to find that citation).

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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2012-01-10, 01:01

So then if it's merely a volume:cost thing the cost of these setups should drop in a manner not dissimilar to that of other widely adopted systems like USB (should they be widely adopted). Let's see what kind of "umph" the industry throws behind this connector. I think that accessory manufacturers are all too ready to see a new reason to re-sell people a whole new wave of scanners and printers and hard drives and whatnot.

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Eugene
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
 
2012-01-10, 02:42

I think most scanner and printer manufacturers will eschew the port for the same reason they ignored FW800. It's unnecessary and more expensive for them compared to USB 2.0. And while USB 2.0 is still cheaper than USB 3.0, it's not by much.

Thunderbolt will eventually make its way onto high-end video cards for even wider adoption. Just about any enthusiast PC sold today comes mini-DP.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2012-02-01, 22:30

Tada!!!

The Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter is FINALLY here!!!

It's faster, but pricey.



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