thunderbolt

Last month, when asked which one was better, Thunderbolt or USB 3.0, I said that it was hard to compare the two since Thunderbolt is about more than just storage. Now here's the proof: Apple's latest Thunderbolt-based device, the Thunderbolt Display.

This is the first display from Apple that uses Thunderbolt as the connection, and from my first impressions, it seems great.

First of all, it's extremely sleek with an aluminum chassis and a gorgeous-looking LED-backlight LCD. It's huge, too, with a 27-inch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a maximum resolution of … Read more

Apple's last major connectivity advancement was in the late '90s with FireWire, which was used as a replacement for the SCSI bus on Mac systems; however, the licensing and complexity of the port made it a less attractive option than alternatives like USB for many device manufacturers, especially given the ease of implementation and eventual speed of USB 2.0. While FireWire has extended beyond its initial 400Mbps speeds to offer 800Mbps, and potentially up to 3,200Mbps, in the face of current alternatives the technology does not seem to be advancing much beyond its current implementations.

Given the … Read more

One of Thunderbolt's features is that it contains both the PCI-express and DisplayPort protocols, which conveniently allows the mixing of both displays and other devices on the same daisy chain. In addition, because Thunderbolt contains DisplayPort, it should also be compatible with existing DisplayPort displays, such as Apple's 27-inch Cinema Display that was available before its Thunderbolt Display was released. Because of this a number of people who have been using Apple's DisplayPort-based Cinema Display have looked forward to using the monitor in a dual-display setup with Apple's new Thunderbolt Display, but unfortunately this will not … Read more

Intel's next-generation processor is expected to add support for a key OS X technology that accelerates gaming and financial applications. That potentially means a more powerful MacBook Air in the future.

Listed as a "core" OS X technology, OpenCL "dramatically accelerates" applications by tapping into the special processing power of the graphics processing unit (GPU), according to Apple. It taps into what an Apple developer page states as the "the amazing parallel computing power of the GPU."

GPU-centric acceleration can be used for financial modeling, accounting applications, analysis on large media files, games, and media applications. In general, the GPU is much better than the CPU (central processing unit) at certain types of computations--thus the necessity of GPUs in games. … Read more

Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processor will pack two key--some might say essential--technologies that will make it the platform of choice for Ultrabooks. Hint: one of them is not Thunderbolt--the widely publicized connection technology that is now part of the entire Apple MacBook lineup.

For the uninitiated, Ivy Bridge is Intel's next-gen processor that is being manufactured now and is due to land in laptops by the first quarter of next year. It will have more powerful graphics silicon than the current Sandy Bridge chip and offer improved power saving features to boost battery life.

But those marquee features … Read more

Thunderbolt, Intel's high-speed communications protocol, is coming to Windows PCs in 2012.

Acer and Asus should bring out Windows devices--including Ultrabooks--that support the high-speed interconnect technology next year, Mooly Eden, Intel's general manager of PC client devices, told attendees at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco today.

Thunderbolt is a technology developed by Intel under the code name Light Peak that allows for the dual bi-directional transfer of data over copper cable at 10Gbps per channel. Thunderbolt was announced in February and first appeared in Apple's MacBook Pros.

Eden demonstrated a Windows PC connecting to a set of Intel SSDs via Thunderbolt. This allowed it to concurrently stream four uncompressed videos at around 700MBps.

This article originally appeared on ZDNet UK.… Read more

On Monday, Apple released an EFI firmware update for MacBook Air systems that in addition to fixing performance issues with Target Disk mode, implemented compatibility for the upcoming Thunderbolt displays that Apple is developing. Following this update, Apple today released two more updates for the Mac Mini and MacBook Pro systems which address the same problems and compatibility issues as the MacBook Air update.

In addition to addressing Thunderbolt-related issues, the updates address issues with OS X Lion's "Internet Recovery" feature on the Mac Mini, and enables it on the MacBook Pro which previously did not have … Read more

In conjunction with the impending release of its new Thunderbolt Cinema Displays, Apple's pushed out a software update to its latest MacBook Air models that gets them ready to plug in to the new hardware, while fixing a handful of bugs in the process.

The EFI update, versioned 2.1, comes in at 3.9MB and promises to fix issues that arise when recovering Lion using the new Internet Recovery feature. The update is also aimed at improving performance in target disk mode when plugging in via Thunderbolt.

Of special note is the fix of an issue with plugging in to Apple's yet-to-be-released Thunderbolt Display, which has been marketed as a docking station of sorts for late-model MacBook Air owners.

For instance, those users can plug in to the display to get a Firewire 800 port, FaceTime HD camera, Gigabit ethernet and three USB 2.0 ports, extending the I/O that ships on Apple's smallest notebook, and demoing some utility for the computer's Thunderbolt port, which currently has just a handful of third-party accessories to make use of it.

Apple introduced its Thunderbolt Display alongside new versions of the MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and its Lion OS software update in late July, saying only that it would be launching that new display hardware "within the next 60 days." A report in MacRumors last week suggested that Apple was already in the process of shipping its $999 Thunderbolt Displays to stores. However, Apple continues to list it as shipping within the next "2-3 weeks" from its online store.… Read more

Since the late 1990s, USB has been the dominant PC connectivity technology for external devices. As anyone who remembers the era of parallel, serial, and PS/2 connectors can tell you, USB is a wonderful thing--whether you're talking about the original 1.1 standard, the now-pervasive 2.0 version, or the still-emerging 3.0 variant.

But what if there was a connectivity standard that was faster than the fastest version of USB? And what if it worked with even more types of devices, including displays? And what if it was even compatible with USB itself, through the use of an adapter?

It's no fantasy--it's Thunderbolt. And I have high hopes for this technology, even though it's not yet clear that it'll be anywhere near as universal as the good old Universal Serial Bus has been for years.

Thunderbolt originated in Intel's labs as a technology called Light Peak. It mashed up PCI Express (the zippy standard used for cards you install inside a PC) with DisplayPort (the new standard for connecting displays), and added compatibility with various other connection technologies. Apple got excited about the idea and began working with Intel to commercialize it. Under the catchier moniker Thunderbolt, it's now available on all new Macs except for Mac Pro desktops, and it's a safe bet that Apple will add it to those machines in their next big upgrade.

With two 10-Gbps channels, Thunderbolt is supercharged by any definition: USB 3.0, which is itself no slowpoke, provides a single 5-Gbps channel. (USB 2.0, still the most pervasive port out there, chugs along at a comparatively pokey 480-Mbps.) … Read more