• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Is Thunderbolt as dead as Firewire?

JimKiler

JimKiler

Diamond Member
I saw this on DailyTech today:

Acer is shying away from the use of Thunderbolt and will instead focus on USB for future machines.

According to Acer, Thunderbolt is for more high-end PCs and has become much too expensive. USB, on the other hand, has had a performance boost and offers more bang for their buck.
Click to expand...

If i remember correctly firewire was better than USB but never materialized at the dominant technology.
 
The real question is, what does Thunderbolt provide that justifies it's price? As far as I can tell, it's only:


  • 4k displays (for the moment a VERY niche market)
  • external video cards
The second one sounds like it might appeal to gamers, but it's still a factor of four too slow to match PCIe x16, and current implementations are rare and less appealing in practice than theory.
 
Both are Apple creations and Apple requires some payment for their use. USB 2 killed Firewire and USB 3 makes extra cost of T-Bolt questionable.
 
Sohaltang said:
Something like display port and firewire combined.
Click to expand...

Not far off. It's displayport combined with an external PCIe connector. In theory, you should be able to take a Thunderbolt cable use an adapter to create the PCIe slot, and operate a card. The only limitation is that the Thunderbolt port can only supply 10W power on its own.

corkyg said:
Both are Apple creations and Apple requires some payment for their use. USB 2 killed Firewire and USB 3 makes extra cost of T-Bolt questionable.
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt is owned by Intel, but your point stands. It's also worth noting that Thunderbolt is only available (at least for now) on Intel-based systems. That not only excludes AMD, but also ARM systems, which will begin to dominate consumer computing as people make tablets and phones their primary devices.

Thunderbolt needs a killer app to succeed. Something that a large fraction of the consumer market is willing to pay extra for that USB 3.0 can't do. As of right now, I don't see where than can come from.
 
crashtestdummy said:
Thunderbolt needs a killer app to succeed. Something that a large fraction of the consumer market is willing to pay extra for that USB 3.0 can't do. As of right now, I don't see where than can come from.
Click to expand...

This. USB 3.0's value, usefulness, and adoption by all hardware makers ensured it's success. The only time I ever used Firewire was back when my iPod had to have that port to sync with my PC. Fast, yes, but soon obsolete.
 
But a thunderbolt cable is a magical cable made of hope, and friendship, and diamonds, and that must be true or else how could they possibly justify charging $50 for 3m of it? 😛
 
I thought Thunderbolt was targeted more towards the professional and high end consumer markets? Nobody in their right mind would expect it to be as widely adopted as USB 3.

And Thunderbolt is Intel's baby, not Apple's, and while I could be mistaken, license fees are paid to Intel and none to Apple.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/0...ssues-can-thunderbolt-break-out-of-its-niche/

And just as a general comment why wouldn't everyone want it to be widely supported and adopted? Isn't having more options for external expansion better than having less?

-KeithP
 
T_Yamamoto said:
I thought only apple used thunderbolt.

Guess I was wrong.
Click to expand...


close, but as I know it, apple managed to get a exclusive access deal to it so only they had it until recently. Now it is open to the PC world but the need of 4 PCI-E lanes to make up a single thunderbolt connection means not many will want it in the mid ranged as most of those lanes come from the CPU with it's limited number. You could connect via the motherboard chipset, but that will take all (?) 4 that the motherboard has and will slow the connection slightly.

As to the market for it, high end will want the connections used internally (PCI-E lanes), the mid market does not see a urgent need currently and the budget end will just see expence with no benifit.

I expect it to go well for the small PC market and external devices. Also in setups using large external storage systems, but that last one is a limited market outside of businesses. Businesses are more use to SAS/eSAS and it's data speeds to not need thunderbolt.

Without a massive drop in the chipsets and cables, thunderbolt will just be the next firewire. Useful for some, too expencive to consider for the masses.
 
It was always dead. It was just a scam to extract more money from the consumer, probably concocted on a golf course with apple and intel execs drooling all over each other.
 
sm625 said:
It was always dead. It was just a scam to extract more money from the consumer, probably concocted on a golf course with apple and intel execs drooling all over each other.
Click to expand...

Yeah, cause external PCIe has absolutely no application anywhere. 🙄
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top